D’Vontaye Mitchell death: Four people are charged with felony murder

Four hotel workers were charged Tuesday with felony murder in connection with the June death of a Black man who authorities say was pinned to the ground outside a downtown Milwaukee Hyatt Regency in an encounter partially captured on video, court documents show.

Four hotel workers were charged Tuesday with felony murder in connection with the June death of a Black man who authorities say was pinned to the ground outside a downtown Milwaukee Hyatt Regency in an encounter partially captured on video, court documents show. The charges relate to the June 30 death of 43-year-old D’Vontaye Mitchell, who was held down for about eight to nine minutes during the encounter, according to the charging documents. Arrest warrants have been issued for the four people charged in the case, the office of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Tuesday. Security manager Todd Alan Erickson, front desk agent Devin W. Johnson-Carson, security guard Brandon LaDaniel Turner and bellman Herbert T. Williamson are the four defendants, court documents show. CNN has sought comment from the defendants and has reached out to prosecutors to see whether the four charged have attorneys. Hotel employees escorted Mitchell out of the hotel June 30 and held him on concrete facedown after he entered the building in a frantic state, hid behind objects in the lobby, tried to lock himself inside a women’s restroom and became combative with security, a medical examiner’s investigation report released Friday said. Mitchell died from “restraint asphyxia and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine,” and the manner of death is homicide, according to an autopsy report released Friday by the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office. While the four defendants tackled Mitchell to the ground outside the hotel, one of them struck Mitchell multiple times; another hit him once; and another kicked him in the torso, the charging documents filed Tuesday say. The four defendants then used “various means of force” to hold Mitchell in place while he was on the ground, “including pushing down on (Mitchell’s) back, shoulders and arms,” and including one defendant appearing to strike Mitchell with a collapsable baton, court documents say.