Washington, D.C. – Church World Service today expressed its outrage over the recent death of a handcuffed man at the hands of sheriff deputies and medical staff on March 6th. The man, 28-year-old Irvo Otieno, who came to the United States with his family from Kenya when he was four years old, died in custody at a psychiatric hospital after being suffocated by seven Henrico County, Virginia deputies. Otieno had been in custody for three days before his death. The seven have officially been charged with second-degree murder by a local district attorney and are on administrative leave.
As part of CWS’ Platform on Racial Justice, the organization specifically calls for community needs that are currently treated as law enforcement issues to be served by mental health response teams, among other holistic efforts to address unnecessary violence and loss of life.
“Irvo Otieno’s mother brought him and his family to the United States in pursuit of the American Dream. For that dream to end in a nightmare, is not only a failure of our national practices on policing and mental health, but of our nation itself. Irvo, after experiencing a mental health incident, was taken into custody, it was then that three days later that he was killed. He should not have been perceived as a threat, but as someone issuing a call for help. We stand with his family and community in the wake of this tragedy,” said Rick Santos, President and CEO of CWS. “Our system needs to better respond to mental health crises, especially when it comes to Black, Indigenous and people of color. Mental health needs should not be addressed in handcuffs, nor via the hands of police officers on the streets who don’t have training in this area. The service of our people should be through trained professionals, supportive facilities, and, if necessary, our courtrooms. How we treat those in need, especially those suffering from mental health issues should be something we should be proud of, not something that ends in needless tragedy.”
Through Church World Service’s Platform on Racial Justice, the organization is calling for action to ensure what happened to Irvo does not happen to others. The incident sadly recalls incidents, and continues the horrifying trend, of violence against black Americans and black immigrant Americans at the hands of police, extending far into the past beyond the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbury, Breonna Taylor, Patrick Lyoya, and now Irvo Otieno.
For more information or to speak with Santos, contact media@cwsglobal.org.