BALTIMORE — The in-custody death of a man experiencing a mental health crisis has been ruled a homicide per the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, two months after his death.
It's confirmation of what his family already knew, according to a statement released today through their attorneys at the Greenberg Law Office.
"Dontae's death was not an accident. It was the direct result of the actions and inactions of those sworn to protect him. This was a preventable tragedy," the statement said in part.
This comes a day after the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released six hours of body-worn camera footage detailing the near-hour long wait for a medic at the scene, who never came.
The victim, 31-year-old Dontae Melton Jr., died at 3 a.m. on June 25th at the hospital, a little more than five hours after his first interaction with police where he had asked for help.
On camera, he’s seen asking the Officer, identified as Gerard Pettiford, for help. He expresses that he felt like he was being chased.
When he doesn’t respond to the officer’s commands to get out of the street and sit down, he is restrained at first by Pettiford and then by several officers who responded to the scene.
Statement from Greenberg Law Office:
“We represent the family of Dontae Melton, Jr., a 31-year-old son, brother, father of two, and friend to many. Dontae was in the midst of a mental health crisis when he sought help from police.
Instead of compassion and care, he was met with force. He was handcuffed, forced to the ground, and left injured. For nearly 50 minutes, he waited for critical medical aid that never came. The hospital was less than three minutes away.
Yet no officer drove him there until it was far too late. Dontae died just hours later.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has now ruled his death a homicide—confirming what his family knew all along: Dontae’s death was not an accident.
It was the direct result of the actions and inactions of those sworn to protect him. This was a preventable tragedy. His family is demanding answers, transparency, and accountability.
They are also calling for systemic reform so that no other family endures the needless loss of a loved one in a moment when help—not harm—was needed most.
The system must be fixed.
If anyone has information about this incident, we urge you to contact the Greenberg Law Office at (410) 539-5250. Justice must be pursued, accountability must be achieved, and Dontae’s family deserves the truth.”
“The system must be fixed”
Melton was the second of three in a string of deaths in Baltimore City that occurred during a police interaction, within about a week of each other.
On June 17, police shot and killed a well-known arabber Bilal Abdullah Jr. after he fired a gun at officers, which the police accountability board later called "justified". His family told WMAR-2 News he struggled with mental health issues.
In the same neighborhood on June 25, police shot and killed 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks in her home while she was experiencing a mental health episode.
On the evening of June 24, when Melton was searching for help it’s believed that the Computer-Aided Dispatch or CAD system was down.
According to police commissioner Richard Worley this has happened before.
“If someone calls 911, we need the system to work,” Baltimore City council president Zeke Cohen said..
On Wednesday, city leaders hosted a public hearing at city hall about the gaps in its crisis response system among other reported failures.
In addition to police not having mandatory crisis intervention training, Cohen tells WMAR-2 News he learned that not enough calls are being diverted from 911 to 988 nor is there enough staffing to support the city's mobile crisis team.
“This is a real moment for Baltimore because we are seeing enormous progress when it comes to reducing violence in our city, but these mental health crises still pose a real threat if we don't have the right tools to deal with them,” he said.
During that meeting, BPD made a commitment to enroll all cadets into CIT training and city administration is now putting together a report on crisis team staffing.
There is also a proposal by the acting health commissioner Dr. Michelle Taylor to create a division of behavioral health within the health department.
"I think that has been sorely missing, and I think that one of the challenges we've had on this issue is there's a lot of muddle, there's a lot of nonprofits,there's a lot of inter-agency work. No one has really owned it. Someone needs to be at the top of the pyramid so that when the system fails,there's a clear point of accountability and we can fix it," Cohen said.
It’s unclear what's being done though, to prevent a lengthy wait for help like the one that preceded Melton's death.
His manner of death has still not yet been released.
The case is still under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.