Update (November 21, 2018): The sister of Chinedu Valentine Okobi, who was tased by police and later died, says the police are attempting to slander her brother.
Facebook Public Policy Director for Africa and sister to Chinedu, Ebele Okobi, said that police footage of the incident, which has not yet been made public, contradicts officers' accounts of the event.
On Sunday, Ebele made a Facebook post decrying what she witnessed in the video.
"Two days ago, I watched the police videos of my brother’s October 3 murder," Ebele wrote. "They were shocking, not just because I sat next to my mother as we watched my little brother getting tortured to death in broad daylight while he begged 'Someone, please help me!' and cried out 'What did I do?'"
"They are trying to make my brother, a homicide victim, responsible for his own murder in the court of public opinion," she said according to USA Today.
"They were shocking because District Attorney Wagstaffe has allowed statements that he knows to be false to remain in the public record," she wrote, in part. "They were shocking because my brother’s mental illness had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his killing."
Original: Chinedu Valentine Okobi was tased by police following a traffic stop in San Mateo, California, on October 3. Now, the group of sheriff deputies who may have been responsible for his demise have been identified.
KQED reports that at least one of the five identified officers deployed a taser during the arrest that may have taken the Morehouse graduate's life. The deputies are John DeMartini, Alyssa Lorenzatti, Joshua Wang, Bryan Watt and Sgt. David Weidner, all of which are currently on paid leave.
Authorities claim the 36-year-old Redwood City resident was pulled over for dodging in and out of traffic when deputies tried to arrest him. A release from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office says that when one of the officials stepped out of the car, he was "immediately assaulted" by Okobi.
“They were attempting to get control of him as he resisted, and during the course of that a Taser was discharged,” District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. “At this point, we’re still investigating how many times."
Okobi is believed to have been unarmed.
“We have no information, no belief in anything of there being any weapon on his part,” Wagstaffe added.
San Mateo County sheriff's officers are not required to wear body cameras. After Okobi was arrested, he stopped breathing. Wagstaffe assures that his office has obtained footage from cameras mounted on the vehicle dashboards of responding deputies and cellphone videos from witnesses. If it is determined that the stun gun had anything to do with the Morehouse graduate's death, it will be ruled a homicide. Next would be to determine if officers were justified in their actions, which history has shown us that the system almost always decides they are.
Okobi had a love for the arts. He recently uploaded his Christian/gospel album to ReverbNation. According to his artist page, he is a Bay Area native and the son of Nigerian parents.
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