Kevin Desir: Florida man, 43, ‘strangled to death’ during brawl with six guards in prison, autopsy reveals
BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: An autopsy reportedly revealed that the death of a 43-year-old Florida man, who had been physically restrained by six prison guards in 2021, was a homicide by strangulation. Kevin Desir was reportedly first arrested on January 13, 2021, for a number of non-violent crimes including possession of marijuana and a probation violation.
Desir was then transferred to the North Broward Bureau facility, a prison that specifically detains people who have mental and physical disabilities. After his 2021 detention, Desir, whose family noted that he had a history of bipolar disorder, was placed under psychological observation by jail staffers, as per The Guardian. On January 17, the prison guards found Desir standing naked in his cell with severe cuts on his body. He reportedly had cut himself with a piece of metal protruding from a cell mirror. Jail deputies tried to console him and offered him food, which he violently refused, as per The Independent.
READ MORE
Tracy Beatty: Texas executes death row inmate who strangled mom to death and buried her in backyard
Christopher Scarver: Inmate who bludgeoned Jeffrey Dahmer to death explains why he did it
Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputies then “removed Desir from the cell to assess his injuries and render aid” at which point he “became extremely violent by pulling away, kicking and spitting,” according to a report from the department in May. During the encounter, six prison deputies tried to restrain Desir, punching him repeatedly, using a taser and pepper-spraying him. One official even interlocked his hands on Desir’s neck and used “his body weight to leverage Desir back into the chair," according to a memo from the Broward County State Attorney’s Office obtained by The Guardian.
During the altercation, Desir lost consciousness at some point and was rushed to the hospital, where he died on January 27, 2021. An internal investigation was launched on the matter and an autopsy was done on the deceased body of the inmate. The autopsy conducted by the Broward county medical examiner’s office concluded that Desir’s cause and manner of death were undetermined. In February, the state attorney's office declared Desir's death to be justified and said it would not bring charges against any of the six cops involved, according to the Guardian.
However, challenging the previous investigation report, a private autopsy commissioned by Desir’s family and obtained by The Guardian, concluded that Desir’s death was a homicide from “manual strangulation,” after his “neck and carotid arteries [were] compressed during [a] law enforcement restraint attempt." The report, which was conducted on January 31, 2021, by Dr Daniel Schultz of Hillsborough county, took almost 21 months to finalize after Desir’s body was examined. Seeking justice for her son, Desir's mother, 73-year-old Sercilia, told the outlet recently, “They [need] to release the tapes, so I can see how they killed my son.” Desir's younger brother Mikeco reportedly said, “To have somebody snatched from you like this, it’s something that will never sit well with me.” Authorities are yet to respond to the differences between the two autopsy reports.