D’Vontaye Mitchell, a 43-year-old Black man, died after being pinned to the ground by hotel security guards at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Milwaukee on the afternoon of June 30. With many questions unanswered, his death has sparked protests. As yet, there have been no arrests or charges.
Details are still scarce, including the precise cause of Mitchell’s death, but here’s what we know so far.
Police claimed that Mitchell “caused a disturbance” and “fought with security guards,” which led to guards trying to remove him from the building. In a video shared on Facebook and republished by CNN, Mitchell is seen being held to the ground outside the hotel entrance. Four individuals, appearing to be of different races, are restraining him as bystanders watch.
Mitchell is heard repeatedly shouting “Please,” and “I’m sorry.” The people holding him down respond, “Stay down” and “Stop fighting.”
“This is what happens when you go into the ladies room,” calls out one guard, who appears white.
Mitchell’s devastated family is demanding answers and accountability.
William Sulton and B’Ivory Lamar, attorneys for the family, told local outlet TMJ 4 that they reviewed security footage from the Hyatt. Sulton said Mitchell’s injuries included broken ribs: “They beat him to death.”
Mitchell’s family members have also reviewed the video, which is not yet public. According to the family and attorney Ben Crump—a civil rights lawyer who has represented the families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin, among others—it shows that Mitchell was running away from someone in the hotel, for reasons unclear.
They say the video shows that Mitchell first ran into the gift shop, then tried locking himself in the women’s bathroom before he was dragged out by security guards and severely beaten outside the entrance.
“I went right into hysterical mode. Once they pulled out a picture of him for us to identify him, it was all bad.”
Nayisha Mitchell, D’Vontaye’s sister, told Filter that detectives came to their home at around 10 pm on the night of his death. They simply told her that something happened to Mitchell down at the hotel, and that he wasn’t shot or stabbed, but gave few other details.
“I went right into hysterical mode,” she said. “We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. Once they pulled out a picture of him for us to identify him, it was all bad. We broke down. My mom got up and broke down real bad, as well as myself.”
Mitchell had two children and a wife.
“Me and my brother were really close,” Nayisha Mitchell said. “I’m the oldest out of the kids, and he’s right under me. We spent quite some time together and had a really close relationship.”
“Cooking was one of his passions,” she added. “He loved to draw; dancing was another one. He also liked to write little rap songs. He had a lot of talents.”
The names of the people involved in Mitchell’s death have not been publicly revealed. They included security guards at the hotel, but may also have included non-security personnel.
“The conduct we saw from several associates on June 30 violated our policies and procedures, and does not reflect our values as an organization or the behaviors we expect from our associates,” said the hotel’s owner, Aimbridge Hospitality, in a July 12 public statement. “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.”
According to attorneys for Mitchell’s family, the group of four included both an off-duty and an on-duty security guard, a bellman and a front desk clerk. One anonymous employee, interviewed by TMJ 4, claimed he was “forced to help” with restraining Mitchell. The person said they did not strike Mitchell, but saw one of the other employees hit him in the head with a baton.
“We still don’t know what happened in the beginning, that’s the unclear part.”
“They were basically ripping him out of his clothes,” Mitchell’s wife, DeAsia Harmon, said at a press conference. “To do him like that and to embarrass him like that. To destroy his character. To take away his dignity. That was so wrong of them to do.”
But at this point, Mitchell’s family is still in the dark about key events that day.
“We still don’t know what happened in the beginning, that’s the unclear part,” Latrisa Giles, his cousin, told Filter. “Even from the video some of the family has seen from the inside, D’Vontaye was defending himself. He wasn’t trying to fight back or cause a nuisance, he was defending himself while they were attacking him.”
Giles was angered by early news reporting on Mitchell’s death.
“The media was reporting that a man went into the Hyatt and was causing a nuisance and then when police arrived he was unresponsive,” she said. “They left out a big chunk of stating that he was beaten to death. That’s when the passerbys who saw what was going on started reporting, because they saw how the Hyatt and everyone was trying to sweep this under the rug. It wasn’t until the families started making noise before anyone started saying anything.”
Mitchell’s death has already ignited protests. Protesters marched outside the home of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm on July 16, calling for criminal charges to be filed against the hotel workers. A group also marched downtown on July 18, around the security zone erected around the Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention was taking place that week.
It does not appear that any law enforcement were involved in Mitchell’s death, nor any firearms, though the security guards may have been armed. Wisconsin, where I live, allows private security guards to carry firearms openly, and I regularly see guards with guns, even at the grocery store.
But it was law enforcement that killed Samuel Sharpe, a Black, 43-year-old unhoused veteran, who was fatally shot in Milwaukee by five police officers from Columbus, Ohio, on July 16. Protestors have bee calling for justice in his case alongside that of Mitchell.
The officers had been called from out of state to assist with securing the GOP convention, but the incident took place over a mile from the RNC security zone, separated by interstate highway 43. Sharpe was carrying two knives, according to images shared by the police, and the officers opened fire after he allegedly “lunged” at another man.
But Sharpe had multiple sclerosis. “If the police had known that, they would have known he wasn’t lunging forward. He was stumbling,” Angelique Sharpe, his sister, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Everyone that knew him knew he walked like he was drunk. He stumbled because of the multiple sclerosis.”
“We’re going to keep protesting at the Hyatt, the DA’s office and letting them hear us.”
Although Mitchell’s death involved hotel employees, the distressing video images harken back to those of George Floyd, who was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020. Despite the global protests that erupted that year, too little has changed.
The Milwaukee Police Department stated on July 12 that it had referred four charges of felony murder related to the incident to the Milwaukee County District Attorney. The DA’s office is reportedly investigating Mitchell’s death as a homicide. But the DA’s office isn’t taking further action to file charges, pending an autopsy. The autopsy could take a period of weeks to complete.
Mitchell’s family is determined to keep the pressure on.
“We’re going to continue to protest, get out there and speak about it,” Nayisha Mitchell said. “Waiting on this autopsy, it doesn’t look like anything is going to happen. Until then we’re going to keep protesting at the Hyatt, the DA’s office and letting them hear us. We want justice.”
Photographs of D’Vontaye Mitchell used with permission from Latrisa Giles.
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