Jailhouse death not forgotten. Family seeks justice after death of Alex Rios (VIDEO)

Video — disturbing content WAKEMAN — Three years after their son's death, Don and Toni Mould still have questions: Why has no one ever been charged with killing him? Alex Rios, 28, was arrested on a warrant on Sept. 18, 2019, and taken from his parents' home in Wakeman to the Richland County Jail. Less than 24 hours later, an ambulance brought him to Ohio Health Mansfield Hospital, where he was put on life support. "He remained functionally brain dead for about a week in the hospital," said Dr. Paul Matus, the former Lorain County coroner who carefully reviewed the video, medical records, the autopsy report and other documents related to Rios' death. "This family deserves answers." What happened?A response team of five corrections officers confronted Rios, who was standing atop a half-wall divider inside a jail cell. The lead officer was operating a video camera when the encounter began. A 5-minute, 27-second video recording of what occurred was provided to the Register by Rios' family. It shows Rios calling out to the guards, telling them he does not belong in jail and needs to be released. The lead officer warns him he must settle down and comply with orders or they would come in to remove him from the cell and place him in a restraining chair for his own protection. The officer tells Rios they are coming in to get him after he ignores a final warning. When they open the cell door, however, Rios scampers out and they chase and tackle him. The five officers struggle with him on the floor to handcuff him. Another guard watching what is happening calls out, "Tase him. Tase him." "I'm not even fighting," Rios pleads with them. While pinned to the floor, he is electroshocked repeatedly. One officer punches Rios' head with his fist. A second officer knees Rios in the groin and then kneels on his back with considerable force, while a third officer applies weight with his foot on Rios' upper back and near his neck. At one point, an officer can be seen in the video standing with his full weight on Rios' upper back using both feet, which, according to Matus and others who reviewed the video, severely compressed Rios' chest and compromised his airway. Soon an officer can be seen pressing his knee and nearly his full weight into Rios' upper back near his neck as Rios ceases struggling to breathe. He grows increasingly blue and then goes completely limp and becomes unresponsive. The correction officers continue to apply extreme forces, with significant neck and chest compression, not noticing the serious medical distress they were causing Rios. In just under 5½ minutes from start to finish, the video shows the guards picking up Rios' limp body and trying to place him in the restraining chair. His dead weight causes Rios to fall to the floor, as one officer continues telling the unconscious man to cooperate. "He's turning blue," a guard says. "I'll call a squad." He's dead"What transpired in this case is far more egregious than what the whole world witnessed with George Floyd. Officer (name removed)'s boot on the back and then ultimately the neck of Alex Rios is simply the most objectionable misuse of deadly force this writer has witnessed in a correctional setting." That is an opinion rendered by Edwin C. Voorhies Jr., the former deputy director and senior policy adviser for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Voorhies has 27 years of experience as a corrections officer, special response team member, SRT tactical squad leader, SRT commander, warden and regional director for the state prison system. "A single staff member had Alex on the ground. There was no sign of Alex struggling until (the second) officer delivers repeated strikes to Rios' groin area," Voorhies wrote in an analysis he provided Rios' family in August 2021. His 16-page report also includes these observations, among others: • The other officers did not execute any of the tactics of "quadrant control" that they were taught in their basic training. The use of force quickly turned into an uncontrolled free-for-all with multiple strikes and deployment of (electroshock) weapons. • The video record does not show Alex resisting their restraint efforts until they shock him and repeatedly strike him in the groin area. Any man can tell you that strikes in this region of the body will bring about a violent response in most cases. • The application of force or weight to the head or neck is always considered deadly force. • There is ample evidence to show that the force or weight being applied to the neck of Alex Rios was sufficient to cause grave injury and death to any individual. "(The lead corrections officer's) crisis intervention tactics are antithetical to everything this writer has ever studied, instructed or applied in the correctional setting," Voorhies wrote. "He initiated his intervention with directives and ultimatums; both of which should be reserved for a 'last resort' or in a crisis situation where the threat level is immediate. (The officer) made no effort to explore Mr. Rios' assertions regarding his belief that he was supposed to be released earlier that day." Instead, Rios was given "an ultimatum compounded by a false sense of urgency," Voorhies wrote, at a point when there was no immediate threat, no staff member was in harm's way and the use of force was not necessary. "(The officer's) efforts to temper or preclude a use of force crisis negotiation were superficial and inconsistent with established training and standard." Coming Monday: Will a grand jury ever hear evidence in the death of Alex Rios?