NBC News – SOUTH BOSTON (WSLS 10) - An NBC News report Wednesday showed newly-uncovered surveillance video said to be from the night a South Boston man died while in police custody in May 2013.
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The video was obtained by investigative MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber, and shows officers use a stun gun to subdue Linwood Lambert several times.
WSLS 10 obtained court documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Danville Division. The documents detail what is believed to have happened the night of May 3, 2013 through the following morning.
The documents say police received calls about noise complaints at the hotel where Linwood Lambert was staying. Officers took Lambert from that motel to the hospital, where he kicked out a squad car window as it pulled up to the ER. The video shows Lambert running toward the ER doors. That's when officers used their stun guns on him.
Afterward, officers did not take Lambert inside the hospital. Instead, they took him back to the patrol car, then to the local jail, where he became unresponsive. He was returned to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The officers say their use of force was appropriate and necessary because Lambert damaged property and posed a danger.
Linwood's sister Gwendoly Smalls, is suing police for up to $25 million. A hearing on a motion for sanctions is scheduled in federal court Thursday, November 12.
According to the documents obtained by WSLS 10, Linwood Lambert checked into the Super 8 Motel in South Boston around 11 p.m. on or about May 2, 2013. The following timeline describes the events afterward, according to the original complaint filed with
May 4, 2013
1:30 a.m.
The night shift front desk clerk at the motel gets a call from a 911 dispatcher who wanted to confirm the room number where a guest was staying - room 223.
Officers arrive to room 223, but the person or people inside said they did not call 911.
Officers leave.
Dispatchers call the motel's front desk to check if anyone is in room 123.
Officers arrive to room 123, but the person or people inside said they did not call 911.
Officers leave.
The front desk clerk remembers hearing "the sound of metal banging on metal" somewhere near the laundry room near room 109.
The front desk clerk knocks on the door of room 109 and asks the guest keep the noise low.
4:30 a.m.
The front desk clerk calls the South Boston Police Department.
Three officers arrive at the motel to check room 109.
Linwood Lambert opens the door to room 109.
Lambert told the officers he was "nervous" about a blue truck in the parking lot of the motel.
Officers ask Lambert to leave the motel with them.
5:00 a.m.
Lambert leaves the motel with officers voluntarily and was unarmed.
6:06 a.m.
Lambert arrives at the Halifax Regional Hospital, unresponsive.
The complaint states Lambert agreed to go with officers to the Halifax Regional Hospital for treatment of an "apparent medical/psychiatric condition."
Sometime shortly after 5:00 a.m., Lambert arrived at the hospital with the officers. His exact whereabouts between 5:00 a.m. and 6:06 a.m. are unknown, but the complaint states Lambert was "tasered," "outside the ER doors," but not brought inside the hospital at that time.
The complaint further states "What is known, however, is that after leaving the hospital without receiving any medical treatment, Linwood Lambert suffered cardiac arrest, forcing the police officers to return to the hospital just one hour later."
The complaint filed with federal courts states Lambert's exact whereabouts from 5:00 a.m. until 6:06 a.m. are unknown because Defendants have refused to supply Plaintiff with investigative materials, including but not limited to the police report.
Records show Lambert was brought by rescue "in full cardiac and respiratory arrest and intubated connected to auto pulse." Records also state Lambert "was tazed by PD outside the ER doors earlier," and had gone into cardiac arrest "when he was in jail."
An autopsy report states Lambert "was tazed at distant contact range," had "three punctures, suggestive of tazer barb sites," and Lambert became unresponsive in route to Halifax Regional Hospital.