The City of Denver refuses to release the footage of sheriff’s deputies killing Michael Lee Marshall in the city jail. Denver pastors have launched a hunger strike to force Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration to turn over the video.
Members of Denver’s black clergy have gone on a hunger strike demanding the City of Denver release video of sheriff’s deputies restraining Michael Lee Marshall, a mentally ill homeless man killed while in custody in November.
The Denver Ministerial Alliance, who asked Mayor Michael Hancock in December for the city to release the video, also wants a list of the personnel involved in the attack and assurance that employees in the sheriff’s mental health pod will receive training on deescalation techniques.
Denver’s medical examiner has declared Marshall’s death a homicide.
His killing mirrors that of homeless street preacher Marvin Booker. In that case, it took the city nine months to release video of the 2010 attack. The sheriff’s deputies who killed Booker were never charged, though the Booker family won a $6 million court settlement in its civil case against the city.
Pastor Terrance Hughes, who will be participating in the hunger strike, wrote in a statement, “It is imperative that the Marshall family have immediate comfort as to what happened to their loved one.”
