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Matthew Ajibade died from blunt-force trauma to head and upper body while in police custody in January.
The death of a Black man while in police custody in the state of Georgia was ruled a homicide Thursday, according to Chatham County medical examiner William Wessinger.
Matthew Ajibade, 22, was arrested on New Year's Eve and was found dead the next day while strapped in a restraining chair inside an isolation cell at the Chatham County. His death prompted the County’s Sheriff’s Department to fire nine policemen last month for what it called “inappropriate conduct.”
According to Wessinger, Ajibade's cause of death was "blunt force trauma, which was really a combination of several things that were enumerated in his autopsy report by the GBI," citing "abrasions, lacerations, skin injuries about the head and some other areas of the body. There was some small amount of blood inside the skull case."
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Ajibade, from Nigeria and a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, was arrested at his house after the police responded to a domestic disturbance call.
However, his family's lawyer was unhappy with the authorities' handling of the case. "They have hid this from us for five months. It makes no sense," Mark O'Mara, the lawyer of Ajibade's family, told CNN Thursday.
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"First of all, they knew (the cause of death) back in January, I'm sure. This (death certificate) was signed May 8, and a month later we find out about it... I just don't see how they can be so insensitive to the man, and insensitive to the family's grief," O'Mara added.
According to the lawyer, Ajibade was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago and was having a medical emergency at the time of his arrest and confinement.
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Death of #MatthewAjibade in police custody in savannah ruled a homicide another black man murdered by the state http://t.co/9YAPpfAVxw
— Bassem Masri (@bassem_masri)
June 4, 2015
Following his death, the sheriff's office said in an incident report that Ajibade died in custody after he "became combative during the booking process."
However, O'Mara said Thursday that the student's girlfriend had given the police a bottle of his prescription at the time of his arrest to indicate that his aggressive behavior was part of his illness.
In recent months, several high-profile cases took place across the U.S. in which black men lost their lives on the hands of the police.
Just last month, the Baltimore saw unprecedented unrest and protests over the death of Freddie Gray, the young Black young man who received a head injury while in police custody and died shorty after. Many had taken to the streets to protest police brutality towards Blacks in the country.
