METRO POLICE
Byron Williams is shown in police custody after reportedly violating traffic laws while riding a bike in the area of Martin L. King Boulevard and Bonanza Road, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019.
Published Thursday, July 15, 2021 | 2:51 p.m.
Updated Thursday, July 15, 2021 | 6:21 p.m.
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The actions and inactions of Metro Police officers during a morning traffic stop almost two years ago killed an unarmed Black man, according to Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney representing the man’s family in a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Their actions included stopping Byron Lee Williams, who was pedaling a bike without safety lights, chasing him after he ran from them and pinning him to the ground when he’d given up, Crump said Thursday morning. Officers also mocked Williams while he was in handcuffs.
Their inactions were to not immediately summon medics while he repeatedly uttered “I can’t breathe,” Crump said.
Williams wouldn’t have died Sept. 5, 2019, if police hadn’t tried to stop him for “riding a bicycle while being Black” near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Bonanza Road, Crump said.
Williams died from heart disease, scarred lungs, and methamphetamine, although the officers’ actions contributed to his death, said the Clark County Coroner’s Office, which ruled the death of the 50-year-old a homicide.
The lawsuit, which asks for police transparency and unspecified monetary compensation, was filed Wednesday in federal court in Las Vegas. Crump hopes the lawsuit spurs “civil accountability, criminal liability, and hopefully, legislative accountability and policy reform.”
The Williams family is being represented by Michaelson & Associates in Henderson, Romanucci and Blandin from Chicago, and Crump Law from Washington, D.C.
Because Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office did not file criminal charges against the officers, the attorneys said they are seeking for Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office and the Department of Justice to intervene.
The lawsuit names the city of Las Vegas, Clark County, Metro, Sheriff Joe Lombardo, and the four officers who interacted with Williams, who was declared dead less than an hour after officers initially spotted him at 5:48 a.m.
After Officers Benjamin Vazquez and Patrick Campbell tried to pull him over, and Williams took off, they chased him to a nearby apartment complex, where Williams was lying face down, police said.
One of the officers straddled Williams and put his knee on his buttocks while Williams repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, police said, and body-worn camera footage shows.
Williams went limp as the officers, then joined by reinforcements, dragged him toward a patrol cruiser.
The officers, who were seen high-fiving during the arrest, didn’t attempt to give Williams first aid, according to the lawsuit. The officers joked that Williams had “incarceritis,” a police term that means someone is faking a medical condition to avoid going to jail.
An officer joked about Williams’ Nike sneakers and how they might fit another officer, according to body camera footage.
At one point, the officers turned off their cameras, and there are about 10 minutes missing, according to the lawsuit.
Medics, who initially went to the wrong location, arrived 14 minutes after being called, police said. About 30 minutes later, Williams was declared dead at Valley Hospital and Medical Center.
In 2019, Lombardo told the Sun that the officers “could have done a better job.” After Williams’ death, Metro updated its policy and upped department-wide training to address scenarios when someone says they can’t breathe, which requires that suspects be placed on their side, or having them sit or stand up.
Lombardo rejected the notion that the officers profiled him because of his race, adding, “we ask our officers to fight crime and that’s what they were doing.”
Metro doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
At a news conference this morning, Williams’ family and attorneys were accompanied by family members of George Floyd, a man who was murdered by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck in 2020.
“Police brutality is real, and the dead cannot speak up for themselves so it’s our duty to do so for them,” said Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother. “Just because you are the law, you are not above the law.”
Brandon Williams, George Floyd’s nephew, said: “You have no choice but to think about George Floyd, because their situations are similar in so many ways. Byron Williams said he couldn’t breathe 24 times, George said that he couldn’t breathe nearly 30 times. Yet, no medical attention was given. Police had no remorse, no humanity, no empathy.”
“My little brother,” said Robyn Williams about Byron Williams, “was a sweetheart, kind, gentle, funny, loyal, family oriented. He was a man, not just a Black man, but a man.”
"That’s me and him,” she said, pointing at a picture that showed her and her brother hugging as children. “We were friends.”
