INDIANAPOLIS — On Friday, the parents of Herman Whitfield III joined leaders from Faith in Indiana gathered at City Marker for a rally.
They continue to call for the release of the full, unedited body camera video from April 25, 2022, when Whitfield died in Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department custody.
Signs at the rally pic.twitter.com/vXQoCZw59T
— Vic Ryckaert (@VicRyc) July 1, 2022
Herman Whitfield Jr. described his son as a "gentle, wonderful genius."
"He was held face down three or four minutes after saying repeatedly that he couldn't breathe ... just totally unnecessary, he wasn't a threat at all," Whitfield Jr. said. "All he was doing is just walking around in his own house peacefully.
Whitfield says his son was humming a tune on the night he was killed and was a musical genius.
"He was just a wonderful overall young man," Whitfield said. "The world just lost a great gift."
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Whitfield Jr. joined Faith in Indiana in their call to have a 24/7 crisis intervention team. Currently, there are Mobile Crisis Assistance Teams, which are a specialized unit that pairs a specially trained officer and a clinician for mental health related calls, but they do not work 24/7
IMPD on June 28 releaseda 14-minute Critical Incident Video of the incident at Whitfield's home that included recorded 911 calls and video from cameras worn by officers. The video, edited by a third-party vendor, was posted on YouTube.
After the release of the video, the Whitfield family called for full transparency and demanded that IMPD release all bodycam videos from that night.
"The CIV (Critical Incident Video) is biased in that it selectively includes narration and text to present a false narrative of what happened and leaves out important points which should be acknowledged by IMPD, but which the CIV shows," the Whitfield family's lawyers said in a statement.
WRTV has twice requested full body camera video from IMPD from this case and our request has been denied both times.
Faith in Indiana is also demanding all officers involved in the case be fired. Three minutes of silence were held for Herman as part of the rally.
The Marion County Coroner's office has not yet released a cause of death.
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