Justice for Chinedu Okobi
** Here's how you can help: Call DA Wagstaffe to demand justice for Chinedu Okobi: (650) 363-4636. Office hours are M-F 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm PT**
Statement from Ebele Okobi, the victim’s sister.
Two days ago, I watched the police videos of my brother’s October 3 murder. They were shocking, not just because I sat next to my mother as we watched my little brother getting tortured to death in broad daylight while he begged “Someone, please help me!” and cried out “What did I do?”. They were shocking because they contradicted, in every single particular, the statement that the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office released and to which San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe referred in multiple news outlets after my brother’s murder. They were shocking because the District Attorney, his investigators and the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office have had access to these videos for weeks and have done nothing whatsoever to hold Sergeant David Weidner and Deputies John DeMartini, Alyssa Lorenzatti, Joshua Wang and Bryan Watt accountable. They were shocking because District Attorney Wagstaffe has allowed statements that he knows to be false to remain in the public record. They were shocking because my brother’s mental illness had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his killing.
The video of my brother’s murder starts out with a dash cam view of my brother, walking calmly down the sidewalk, carrying bags. It’s notable, because the view shows other people walking-it’s broad daylight, so there is nothing particularly interesting or sinister about a man walking down the street, holding bags, heading somewhere. He is dressed normally, and doesn’t look disheveled or as if he’s in crisis.
The deputy driving the car says something like who is this guy, and then speeds up to get alongside my brother.
Lie #1: According to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s office and District Attorney Wagstaffe’s statements, my brother was “running in and out of traffic”. My brother was not walking in and out of traffic when the deputy noticed him. He was walking on the sidewalk, as people do.
Based upon the audio of the first deputy who made contact with my brother, that deputy was also not responding to any calls about anyone “running in and out of traffic”, so there was no basis to stop my brother other than what that deputy saw. The video shows the deputy was driving down the street, noticed my brother walking down the sidewalk from about a block away, and decided to stop him.
When the deputy pulls up alongside my brother, he shouts at him and asks him what he’s doing, tells him he needs to question him. My brother quietly answers (it’s inaudible), and then walks to the intersection, looks out for traffic, and crosses the street.
At that point, the deputy calls in a Code 3. A Code 3 means “Emergency, send back-up.”.
Lie #2: At no point was the deputy in danger, there was nothing about a man crossing the street at an intersection that was an emergency. He was in a car, and my brother had crossed the street away from him. The deputy, within 2 minutes of having seen my brother, has dramatically escalated a situation that didn’t need to even be a situation and has then lied about being in danger and there being an emergency, which he knows will result in other deputies coming in hot.
The next cut of the video shows my brother, as he has crossed to the other side of the street. The first deputy speeds across the street to cut him off, another police car speeds up in front of my brother. Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti charges out of the car. At this point, my brother drops his bags and puts his arms up in the air. Deputy Lorenzatti rushes into him, he twists to the side and moves his hand up to avoid being hit or to avoid inadvertently hitting her.
They grab him, rip off his jacket. He tries to run, asking, “What’s wrong? What did I do?” That’s when Deputy Joshua Wang tased him. My brother falls in the street, on his back, crying. He has the presence of mind to keep his hands in the air, even as Deputy Wang holds the taser and continuously sends volts of electricity through his prone body. He is not fighting, just crying in pain. I will never forget the visual of his hands, waving above his head, open, begging. He begs them to take the taser prongs off of him. He tries to pull them off himself.
Lie #3: My brother never attacked any of the deputies. He did not assault anyone. My baby brother, as big as he was, didn’t even defend himself.
The deputies keep shouting at him to turn over on his stomach. They electrocute him again. He screams. At no point does anyone tell him why he was stopped, what they think he has done, whether or not he is under arrest. When there is a break in the torture, my brother staggers to his knees, tries to run away. A deputy pulls out his baton, strikes, they tase him again. My brother goes down. At some point, my brother tries to run across the street, they chase him, they tase him, they pepper spray him, they jump on top of him while he is prone. There is audio of Sergeant Weidner saying “Stay on top of him, stay on top of him, stay on top of him.” Someone asks if my brother is still breathing. Sergeant Weidner keeps cheering them on, telling them to stay on him until they have crushed the life out of him. Someone shouts “I see blood!” Then it’s over.
My brother has clearly died, right there on the sidewalk, in broad daylight. One of the deputies immediately declares it a crime scene. A deputy asks another, solicitously, if he wants water. Killing my brother is thirsty work, apparently. What not a single one of those deputies does is give my brother CPR. None of them tries to help him. They express no shock or remorse at the fact of his death. It’s all very casual. They prop his body upright, like an over-full trash bag. His head hangs forward, airways occluded. No one follows even the most basic life-saving procedures. There is no mercy or compassion for my little brother. If they...
