Graphic video played in court Friday showed how deputy Jason Kenny used a stun gun on Ajibade while he was in the chair.
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According to NBC, Ajibade, 22, was taken into police custody on New Year’s Day following what his family called a bipolar episode, during which he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and a deputy. Monday NBC News reported that two Georgia sheriff’s deputies and a health care worker are now being tried for involuntary manslaughter.
The minute-long footage, filmed with a camera attached to the taser and obtained by NBC, shows 22-year-old Matthew Ajibade sitting in a chair. Chatham Police Nine sheriff’s deputies were fired after Ajibade’s death: Top, left to right, Paul Folsome, Frederick Burke, Eric Vinson, Burt Ambrose and Andrew Evans-Martinez, bottom left to right, Jason Kenny, Maxine Evans, Christopher Reed and Abram Burns. Though the audio is muffled, the stun from the gun is heard, followed by Ajibade’s screams. The 22-year-old reportedly had scrapes, bumps and abrasions on his upper body and head, and was still wearing a spit mask used to cover his face during the video when deputies found him dead.
Mark O’Mara, best known for his successful defense of Georgia Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, is representing the Ajibade family, who are weighing a civil suit. Prosecutors claims the deputies didn’t check on Mathew Ajibade after he was shocked with a taser while in a restraining chair and Ajibade was in that chair from 12:09 a.m. until 1:37 a.m. on January 1 without a visit.
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Both Kenny and Evans say they’re innocent. The cause of death was listed as “blunt force trauma, which was really a combination of several things that were enumerated in his autopsy report by the GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation”, Chatham County coroner Dr. Bill Wessinger said at the time. As the student was carted away from the family home, his girlfriend even gave the officers a bottle of his medication.
