NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) – The Broward Sheriff’s Office has released body camera video and several records following outcry from the family of man who died while in custody.
The family of 29-year-old Kevon Todd said they have been asking for three months what happened to their loved one, and they hope the video will help them understand.
“The family has been more than patient in giving BSO time and space to investigate, but at this point, they all just want answers,” Robyn Blake, the family’s attorney, said.
A deputy’s body camera captured Todd running through an empty security line at Fort Lauderdale International Airport at around 9 a.m. on April 9. Two hours later, he would be pronounced dead.
Deputies initially found Todd wearing a hospital bracelet wandering through Terminal 3, and he complies and leaves at first.
“Just stay out of the terminal,” a deputy instructed Todd. “Don’t go in the terminal, all right? We are gonna trespass you. I’m not getting mad. I’m just letting you know. All right, just stay out of the terminal.”
At one point, Todd appeared to skip into a traffic lane, losing a shoe.
“I’m trying to give him his shoe back,” another deputy said. “He doesn’t want his shoe.”
Then, Todd went back into the terminal and headed towards the security checkpoint.
Multiple images show a struggle, and a man who appears to be an airport employee is also knocked to the ground.
At one point, a deputy places his knee on Todd’s back, near his shoulder, but it never appears to come close to his head or neck.
Within a minute Todd is handcuffed, but he continues to fight back. Deputies end up carrying him out, with his ankles also shackled.
“Just relax, it’s over with bro,” a deputy told Todd. “It’s over with. Relax, it’s over.”
BSO said deputies called for paramedics at 9:24 a.m., and they arrived about 15 minutes later. Less than 30 minutes later, Todd was pronounced dead.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a statement regarding Todd’s death, “The county medical examiner has found that the cause of Kevon Todd’s death was a drug overdose and found that the deputies who took Kevon Todd into custody did not contribute to his death.”
The family said up until Friday, BSO has told them little about the incident.
“We sought help many times trying to get him help that he needed for his mental issues,” Raneill Rodriguez, Todd’s cousin, said.
“It just hit us like a ton of bricks,” Sonia Archer, Todd’s aunt, said. “We lost our relative in the middle of all of this, and there was no support, no information. We were just brushed off as a family.”
Blake has since put out a statement following the video’s release that read:
“Kevon Todd’s family was disappointed about the way they finally received the information they have been requesting for almost 3 months. It felt like an ambush to finally receive this information through the media. That being said, they are relieved to have the video footage which confirms that excessive force contributed to Kevon’s death. While the Medical Examiner’s Report states that no tasing was deployed, the video appears to show Kevon being tased. Police then misinterpreted the signs of a seizure as Mr. Todd resisting arrest. The family will continue to review the evidence, but based on the initial evidence, the family believes excessive force played a part in his unfortunate death.”
Tony said he is asking for a review into the response time by the paramedics, and even though he feels the deputies had nothing to do with Todd’s death directly, he wants to be certain and will send all the information to the state attorney’s office.
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