Two Indianapolis police officers were acquitted on Friday of involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2022 death of a man, Herman Whitfield III, after he was handcuffed and placed face down by the officers, who were responding to reports that he was having a mental health crisis.
A jury also acquitted the officers, Adam Ahmad, 32, and Steven Sanchez, 35, of all of the other charges they faced, including reckless homicide, a felony, and felony and misdemeanor battery charges, according to court records. Officer Sanchez had also faced a second count of involuntary manslaughter for using a Taser on Mr. Whitfield, but that charge was dismissed before trial, according to one of the officer’s lawyers.
Officers Ahmad and Sanchez will return to normal duty after they complete a refresher training, Chris Bailey, the chief of police for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said on social media. As part of a standard protocol, the officers had been placed on various administrative duties after they were indicted, according to their lawyers, John F. Kautzman and Mason Riley.
“We had always maintained that they did not do anything wrong in this case,” Mr. Kautzman said in an interview on Friday evening. “They certainly did not engage in any kind of criminal activity.”
On April 25, 2022, Officers Ahmad and Sanchez arrived at the Whitfields’ home after Mr. Whitfield’s mother, Gladys Whitfield, called 911 saying that her son was having a mental health crisis. Body camera footage that was released after his death showed Mr. Whitfield, who was 39, walking around the house naked.
In another portion of the footage, Mr. Whitfield starts running and an officer draws a Taser and pulled the trigger, stunning Mr. Whitfield. He falls and the officers handcuff him, face down. Mr. Whitfield can be heard saying “I’m dying” and that he can’t breath and, later, the officers are seen performing CPR on him.
The two officers were indicted nearly a year after Mr. Whitfield died and after his family called on the police for months to release the complete, unedited body camera footage, which they eventually did.
Ryan Mears, the Marion County prosecutor, said in a statement that he was “heartbroken” for the Whitfield family, The Associated Press reported. Chief Bailey expressed sympathies for the family and commended the officers for their professionalism during the trial.
“Cases like this are deeply difficult,” Chief Bailey wrote on social media, “and there are no true winners.”
The Marion County Coroner’s Office ruled Mr. Whitfield’s death a homicide caused by heart failure as he was being restrained but added that “morbid obesity” and “hypertensive cardiovascular disease” contributed to his death, according to The A.P.
Mr. Kautzman said that the defense showed that the officers were within their rights to handcuff Mr. Whitfield and that they did not cause his death.
“There was lots of expert testimony with regard to the fact that this was not a positional asphyxia death,” Mr. Kautzman said. “It was sudden cardiac arrest that occurred at the time that the officers were legitimately handcuffing Mr. Whitfield.”
Representatives for the prosecutor’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers representing the Whitfield family also did not respond to requests for comment. The Marion County Coroner’s Office did not respond to requests for the report on the cause of death on Friday night.
The Whitfield family is seeking damages in a wrongful-death lawsuit against several defendants, including the city of Indianapolis and the two officers. The trial in the civil case is set for July 2025, according to court records.
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