Family of Black Man Killed By Milwaukee Hotel Security Promises To Push For Criminal Charges

Justice for D'Vontaye....

The family of D’Vontaye Mitchell expressed promises of pushing for criminal charges against the security guards allegedly responsible for his death.

During Mitchell’s funeral on Jul. 11, chants of “Justice for D’Vontaye” flooded Milwaukee’s Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ as friends, family and supporters remembered Mitchell as a son, husband and brother who his mother, Brenda Giles, described as a “harmless teddy bear” and “a joy in his family.” “We’re going to fight. We’re not going to give up,” Giles said.

Mitchell, 43, lost his life on June 30 after being held down on his stomach outside of the held down on his stomach June 30 outside of a Hyatt hotel. Police report he allegedly entered the hotel and, after causing a disturbance, fought with security guards as they were escorting him outside. Civil rights attorney representing Mitchell’s family, Ben Crump, claims Mitchell was having a mental health crisis, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Attorneys working alongside Crumo, B’Ivory Lamarr and William Sulton said the victim spent the last few minutes of his life allegedly being beaten repeatedly by a security guard with a retractable baton while witnesses just looked and did not intervene. The legal team said video footage sent by the Hyatt shows Mitchell running from something or someone and hiding in the women’s bathroom.

Crump said a signed affidavit from a hotel employee said a security guard was striking Mitchell with a baton, and Mitchell posed no threat while on the ground. When the guards approached him, footage shows his hands were up, but he was still dragged to the ground, beaten, begging for the blows to stop, according to the legal team. “D’Vontaye was trying to run for his life,” Sulton said.

Mitchell’s widow, DeAsia Harmon, saw the surveillance videos and called the content “disgusting.” She said the video showed her husband being dragged outside while he was bleeding. “It makes me sick to my stomach,” Harmon said during a news conference.

“He ran for his life. He was trying to leave. He said, ‘I’ll go,’ and they didn’t let him go.”

Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, released a statement saying several employees involved have been fired. “The conduct we saw from several associates on June 30 violated our policies and procedures and did not reflect our values as an organization or the behaviors we expect from our associates,” the statement read.

“Following review of their actions, their employment has been terminated. We will continue our independent investigation and do everything we can to support law enforcement with their investigation into this tragic incident.”

However, Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, who gave the eulogy at the funeral, said termination isn’t enough and questioned if Mitchell was white, would this have happened. “You should not lose just your job when D’Vontaye lost his life. What they did was a crime and criminals need to be prosecuted. And criminals need to face the penalty of their action,” he said.

“This wasn’t a mistake at the job. This was taking somebody’s life, and there is no justice until you pay for the life you’ve taken. We’re not asking for an apology. We’re asking for justice.”

Sharpton continued to compare Mitchell’s death to that of the death of George Floyd, the Black man killed in May 2020 by then-white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, by putting his knee on Floyd’s neck. Chauvin later was convicted of Floyd’s murder. “I thought you’ll learn that you can’t put your knee on our necks,” Sharpton said.

“But if we have to go from Minneapolis to Milwaukee, you’re going to learn to keep your knees off of our necks.”

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office announced they, along with police investigators, were waiting on full autopsy results and that the case was being reviewed as a homicide.