EL PASO, TEXAS — The El Paso medical examiner’s office has ruled the death of an ICE detainee from Rochester, which happened at an immigrant detention facility in Texas, as a homicide due to asphyxia.
The autopsy report says that Geraldo Lunas Campos died on Jan. 3 due to neck and torso compression. According to the report, witnesses saw guards at Camp East Montana restrain him and he became unresponsive. The report says Lunas Campos’ body showed signs of a struggle, including bruises on his chest and knees and hemorrhages on his neck.
ICE arrested Lunas Campos in July. He’s a registered sex offender and has been convicted of multiple crimes, including sexual contact with a person under 11 in 2003. According to ICE, Lunas Campos came to the U.S. from Cuba in 1996.
Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived. Federal authorities stated the death followed an attempted suicide, but witnesses and civil rights attorneys representing the detainee’s family dispute this account. Will Horowitz, a civil rights attorney with Qureshi Law, said that witnesses reported he was choked.
“There are multiple eyewitnesses who were in detention with Mr. Lunas Campos, that we have spoken with personally,” Horowitz said. “They said that they saw what happened and that he was choked, and that’s how he died. There’s also a preliminary report from the medical examiner, down in Texas. That is not final yet, so we don’t want to say that it is, but preliminarily, what they think happened is that this was a homicide.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said he had attempted suicide and guards tried to help him.
“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” she told the Associated Press. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
The autopsy report says Lunas Campos had bipolar disorder and anxiety. A postmortem toxicology test found medications in his system to treat depression and anxiety.
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