It was evening on June 19 when Randy Cox’s family got a call: Mr. Cox had been arrested by police officers in New Haven, Conn., and was on his way to book.
The family was worried but was told to wait.
The next phone call, hours later, was mind-boggling and terrifying: Mr. Cox, 36, had fallen, was in hospital and needed urgent spinal surgery.
The full picture of what happened in those intervening hours came into sharp focus this week when Mr. Cox and his lawyers presented a police video showing Mr. him from the chest down. The van had come to a sudden stop and there were no seat belts to stop Mr. Cox.
“You can’t even put it into words,” his older sister, LaToya Boomer, said Wednesday. “Stunning.”
Mr Cox, who is black, remained in hospital on Wednesday, on a ventilator, with barely any movement under his neck, his family and his lawyer said. After he was injured, officers mocked Mr Cox for not being able to sit up, a video shows.
It was the latest in a series of disturbing encounters with police in which black people have been injured or killed — episodes that have fueled mistrust of law enforcement and sparked widespread protests against bias and brutality in police work. It bears a striking resemblance to the case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore man who died in 2015 after being forced to ride unrestrained in the back of a similar police transport.
“It’s making me tear up,” said Jack O’Donnell, Mr. Cox’s attorney for many years. The graphic video of his client’s injury, Mr. O’Donnell said, was difficult for him to watch.
In an interview Wednesday, New Haven Mayor Justin Ecker said what happened to Mr. Cox was “terrible,” and vowed that the city would handle the investigation transparently and promptly. Hours after the incident occurred, he said, the city notified state authorities and state police, who began their own investigation.
“It is very important for us to respond to this quickly, decisively and openly,” said Mayor Ecker.
All police officers involved in the incident — a lieutenant and four officers — have been placed on paid leave while the department conducts its investigation, Mr Ecker said.
mr. Cox had spent most of June 19 at a neighborhood party when police came to the area following a gun charge, Mr. O’Donnell and the police. Officers confronted Mr. Cox, found a weapon, they later said, and arrested him.
mr. Cox was first placed in the back of a patrol car with seat belts, Mr. O’Donnell. But officers soon called for a bigger van. The van, often used to transport suspects, did not have seat belts in the vehicle’s bay, he said.
at the police film material, which was published by news outlets, Mr. Cox are seen uninhibited in the back of the van. He kicks the front of the transport area several times. Then he bangs his head against the back: the van had suddenly stopped. Mr. Cox’s limp body lies motionless as he begs for help.
“I’m stopping, I’m going to take a look at you,” you hear the driver, identified in the video as Officer Diaz, yell.
Agent Diaz stops the vehicle to check on Mr. Cox, who says he cannot move. The officer then radios for medical attention and proceeds to the detention facility. After the van arrives, officers can be seen ridiculing and reprimanding Mr. Cox for his attitude and his inability to sit up.
“If you have to tow me, do what you have to do,” Mr. Cox tells the officers, who then drag him out of the van by his feet.
At one point, a cop suggests he may be drunk. Mr. Cox pleads that he cannot feel anything and cannot move. Finally, officers drag him out and drape him over a wheelchair. Later they drag him into a cell by his handcuffed, limp arms.
Mr. Cox underwent surgery to fuse several fractured vertebrae, his sister said.
New Haven City policy does not require officers to stop those arrested in the back of police vans, but it does require officers to immediately call an ambulance or medical personnel to the scene if a passenger becomes physically ill or injured.
In an email to city residents last week, Mayor Ecker said the van appeared to come to an abrupt stop when the police officer who was driving braked to avoid an accident.
“This is not a proud moment for me or the police. We are all disheartened by what has happened,” Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson, who is expected to become New Haven’s next chief of police, said at a community meeting this week. “I want justice for Randy too. We are going to work hard to make changes.”
Although the officers did not appear to have maliciously injured Mr. Cox, Mayor Ecker said, their behavior showed “a degree of insensitivity that is very concerning.”
mr. Cox remains in the hospital, largely unable to move. Mr O’Donnell said doctors are “hopeful, but not optimistic” that he will make a full recovery.
“He was able to talk when he first got to the hospital, but his oxygen and breathing were not good,” said his sister, Ms. Boomer. He can answer “yes” or “no” questions, she said, and he may have shown slight signs of movement in his left arm.
mr. Cox has been charged with gun possession in connection with the incident and has a court date scheduled for July 21, Mr. O’Donnell.
Kirsten Noyes contributed to research.
