PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A jury swiftly acquitted three security guards of involuntary manslaughter Friday in the death of a man who was held to the floor at a Detroit-area mall in 2014, a case that was closed without charges years ago but reopened by state prosecutors.
The jury of eight women and four men heard closing arguments in the weeklong trial and returned with a verdict after approximately an hour.
McKenzie Cochran, a Black man with an enlarged heart, repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” while five guards restrained him at Northland Center. The confrontation followed a call from a jewelry shop owner who said Cochran told him that he wanted to kill someone.
The 10-minute struggle was recorded on dark, grainy mall video, as well as by onlookers. Cochran, 25, was eventually handcuffed and placed against a pillar while guards waited for police and paramedics. The cause of death was asphyxiation.
Defense attorneys argued that the guards were protecting themselves and mall patrons by trying to bring Cochran under control so they could handcuff him. The encounter grew from two guards to five and initially involved pepper spray.
“If someone found a gun in that man’s pocket, they’d be hailing these men as heroes,” defense attorney Jamil Khuja told the jury. “Instead, 10 years later — not a Monday morning quarterback, a 10-years-later quarterback — come and turn their lives upside down.”
John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree embraced one another and their attorneys after the verdicts were read. They declined to comment about the acquittals.
Their family and friends applauded, gasped and cheered in the courtroom. No one from Cochran's family attended the trial; his mother and sister are deceased.
During closing arguments, a prosecutor urged jurors to apply “common sense” and convict the guards, arguing that their gross negligence led to the tragedy.
“This death did not have to happen,” Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan said.
“When a man says several times, ‘I can’t breathe,’ common sense says that these defendants should have repositioned him. They did nothing,” Logan said.
Cochran’s death was classified by the medical examiner as an accident in 2014, and the Oakland County prosecutor did not pursue charges.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel reversed course in 2021 and filed charges amid national outrage over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police.
In a written statement, Nessel, a Democrat, said the acquittals were “not what we had hoped for.”
Defense lawyers repeatedly reminded the jury of the decade that has passed since Cochran’s death.
“They had all this information 10 years ago. No charges. There was no negligence,” Wright Blake said. “So what changed between 2014 and 2021? ... Is it her own political gains?”
Blake noted there was no new evidence, except for the opinion of a forensic pathologist, Dr. Carl Schmidt, who looked at records and testified that the death was not an accident and might be considered a homicide. He had no role in the 2014 autopsy.
"When you allow politics and personal advancement to drive whether or not to charge the case, that’s not the right way to do things,” King's attorney, Doraid Elder, told The Associated Press.
He said Jessica Cooper, the local prosecutor who declined charges 10 years ago, should feel vindicated. She was defeated for reelection in 2020.
The last trial witness was Charles Key, a former Baltimore police supervisor who is considered an expert in the use of force. He said Cochran's struggle to breathe didn't change his opinion that the guards' efforts to restrain him while trying to handcuff him were reasonable.
“If he’s talking it means he’s breathing. He may not be breathing well,” Key testified. "Resisting aggressively — that also can’t be done without taking oxygen.”
Key said Cochran could have been handcuffed in just 30 seconds without resistance.
Another guard, Lucius Hamilton, pleaded guilty last week in anticipation of only 90 days in jail. The guard who led the encounter with Cochran died in 2017.
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