NAACP seeks justice in 2017 case it calls the Columbus version of George Floyd’s death
Calling it the Columbus version of the George Floyd case, the president of the local NAACP branch and the family of Hector Arreola say police are responsible for his death.
Arreola, the 30-year-old man who died in 2017 the day after a struggle with Columbus police, stated 16 times that he couldn’t breathe as an officer sat on him for more than two minutes while Arreola was handcuffed, according to NAACP branch president Wane Hailes.
During a news conference Friday at the Columbus NAACP branch headquarters on the 112th anniversary of the civil rights organization’s founding, Hailes showed a video by Trilogy Production Studios of Columbus that dramatizes the Jan. 10, 2017, incident.
“Our hope is that this draws attention to it,” Hailes said. “We understand the wheels of justice move slowly. We hope to prod this along after today.”
Arreola’s father, retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Rodrigo Arreola, and sister Patricia Ragan joined Hailes in calling for District Attorney Mark Jones to bring the case to a grand jury. They also called for reforms to the legal immunity that police officers have from prosecution.
Jones, who took office last month, said he plans to bring the case to the grand jury.
“I think we’ve got to,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer. “… There’s two sides to the story. Each side has their own version of the events of what happened, and that’s what the grand jury’s for.”
Jones said he wants the grand jury to hear the case during this term, within the next six weeks.
“The family is seeking justice, and they’re not going away,” he said. “They want to be heard on this, so that’s what I intend to do.”
Jan. 10, 2017
According to the L-E’s previous reports, CPD Officers Brian Dudley and Mike Aguilar, who were placed on administrative duty amid the GBI investigation, responded to a disorderly call in the 700 block of Moss Drive around 5 a.m.
Witness Alan Tarvin said he saw Arreola run to a neighbor’s house, bang on the door and claim that someone was trying to kill him.
Officers arrived on the scene and told Arreola to put his hands where they could see them and walk toward them, Tarvin said. The officers approached Arreola after he failed to comply, according to his account of the incident.
Tarvin said the officers weren’t aggressive, but Arreola “fought like a bull” as they tried to place him into custody. One witness reported that an officer had his knee on the back of Arreola’s neck, said Stacey Jackson, the family’s attorney at the time.
Arreola was taken to Columbus Midtown Medical Center (now Piedmont Columbus Regional) where he suffered from contusions and bruising to his upper torso and arm. He also wore a neck brace while breathing with help from a ventilator before he died at 3 p.m., Jackson said then.
Looking for accountability
Hailes said Friday the GBI’s initial autopsy report found that Arreola died from methamphetamine toxicity. But new evidence prompted the GBI to amend the report in July, he said, to state that he died by homicide.
“We want to flip the script,” Arreola’s father said. “We want people to understand and know that this cannot happen again. It’s not a matter of when or a matter of if. It’s a matter of who’s going to be next. Who’s going to be sitting in our seats next? How many times, how many families will have to endure this pain and be completely ignored by the community they live in? It just has to stop.”
Voting every four years isn’t enough, he said.
“Every morning we wake up, we have a vote,” he said, “and we have to vote every day on making our community better. … We just can’t look away anymore.”
He exhorted the authorities to act.
“The pressure is on this city to hold these people accountable for Hector’s death,” he said.
Arreola’s sister added, “We will continue this journey to fight for justice for Hector and for other family members that are going through the same thing we’ve been going through.”
The L-E is trying to obtain the GBI report and hasn’t reached Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon for comment.
Hailes told the L-E the assertion that Arreola stated 16 times he couldn’t breathe came from Arreola’s mother, who witnessed the incident.
“My heart goes out to the family,” Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson told the L-E. “No parent ever wants to bury a child, and I’m just really sorry for their loss.”
Henderson, who became mayor in January 2019, said a pending civil lawsuit in this case prevents him from saying whether he thinks criminal charges should be filed.
“Since it’s still in litigation, that’s something that I can’t really comment on,” he said. “All I can say is that, based on the information we have, there was no violation of policy. It was just a situation that had a tragic outcome.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 1:26 PM.
