Video shows Black teen being restrained by 7 adults for throwing a sandwich. He later died

Trigger Warning: The story has details of racism and descriptions of murder that readers might find disturbing

Surveillance video released Tuesday shows at least seven adults holding down and sitting on 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks, the Black teen who died on May 1 after being restrained for throwing a sandwich in the cafeteria of a youth facility in Michigan. According to CBS News, the disturbing footage was released to reporters by Detroit-area attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing the teen's family in a civil lawsuit that says the boy screamed "I can't breathe" as he was being restrained. According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Fredericks was restrained for about 12 minutes—two minutes longer than the staff members' training allows, reports Insider.

"It is a horrific videotape and it demonstrates what other employees have told us is a culture of fear and abuse at the Lakeside facility," Fieger said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday. "One employee told us that in order to work there, all you needed was to be breathing and accept $13 per hour in pay. Other than that, they would hire anyone." He added that someone who worked at the facility had dubbed it the "death row academy." 

In the video, several of the men involved are seen pulling on and holding Fredericks' arms and legs down while others sat or lay atop his chest and abdomen. Towards the end of the footage, the teen appears limp and falls back to the floor when some staffers attempt to sit him up. Others then move in and start CPR. Fredericks went into cardiac arrest on April 29 while being restrained. Authorities revealed that although the teen was hospitalized, he died two later. The medical examiner ruled Fredericks' death a homicide caused by complications from restraint asphyxia.

Speaking to MLive, Dr. Ted Brown, who conducted the autopsy, said that "the complications of him being restrained, on the ground in a supine position by multiple people, is ultimately what led to his death." Two male staffers and a female nurse—Michael Mosley, Zachary Solis, and Heather McLogan—have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse in connection with his death. They have since been fired by the company. However, Fieger said he is urging authorities to also charge the others involved. "As you can see in the video, far more than two people are involved in suffocating him," he said. "I would urge them to reconsider the other people... who are clearly involved in the killing of Cornelius."

The attorney revealed that Fredericks wound up at Lakeside after his mother died in her sleep, an incident that was extremely traumatizing for the teenager. "When she passed away, his father had been imprisoned so effectively he was an orphan and he had no one to stay with... and that's why he was there," he said. "He was a gregarious, well-liked child. He was a mentor for younger children." But, Fieger added, "he was executed... for the crime of throwing a sandwich."

"A gaggle of employees pounced on him. You'll see his feet lifelessly lying there and you'll see these employees suffocating him to death. He urinated on himself. They deprived him of oxygen and his brain suffered irreversible... damage," Fieger said during the virtual news conference. "What occurred to me as I watched this videotape is that the employees of this institution don't consider these children to be human beings." The attorney revealed that Lakeside for Children declined to share the video with the legal team without a guarantee that it wouldn't be released to the media.

He added that the footage they ultimately received appears to be edited because it jumps around and some sections are missing. "It jumps and there suddenly people are no longer in the scene that were there one second before," said Fieger. Fredericks' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lakeside for Children in Kalamazoo and its staffing contractor, Sequel Youth and Family Services. Sequel also tried to negotiate a settlement," said Fieger, saying that Fredericks' "life was worth less than a million dollars. It's intolerable."