Kin demand access to video of jail death - The Denver Post

Kin demand access to video of jail death - The Denver Post

Family members of a man who died last month in the new Denver jail pressed their case Wednesday that city officials should release video of his last moments alive.

"All we wanted to do is heal," said the Rev. Spencer Booker, the brother of 56-year-old Marvin Booker, who died at the new Van Cise-Simonet Detention Facility on July 9.

Several family members made a "pilgrimage" from Tennessee and Kansas to Denver this week hoping to see video of Marvin Booker's last moments, Spencer Booker said at a news conference Wednesday morning at the jail, 490 W. Colfax Ave.

There is no legally sound reason not to release video of Marvin Booker's death, attorney Darold Killmer said.

"This isn't a legal issue," Killmer said. "It's an issue of humanity. This family practically begged to see the last few minutes of Marvin's life. This city is giving this family a big kick in the stomach."

Witnesses have said that Booker was trying to retrieve his shoes when he was ordered into a holding cell. When he refused and pushed a corrections officer, he was restrained by several deputies and shocked with a Taser.

He was later placed face-down in the holding cell, according to two inmates who watched the incident unfold.

Booker was a homeless ordained minister who served the poor but also was a habitual criminal with a long string of arrests.

The Denver coroner's office is awaiting test results before completing the autopsy report and determining how Booker died, said Michelle Weiss-Samaras, spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.