Like Freddie Gray, Mitchell Brad Martinez, a Florida man, was arrested and took a ride in a police van Friday. Following the 8-minute ride, he came out comatose. Yesterday, after not recovering from a coma, he died of his injuries.
This is a story that reads more like a small-town lynching than a police arrest. A man dies. Nobody saw or heard anything. The sheriff says his deputies all acted properly.
The reason this story does not pass the smell test is that Mr. Martinez was a 35 year old healthy man. There is no legitimate reason why he would have gone in a coma. But social media photos show that he received injuries during the police ride:
A May 31 post has a photo of Martinez in a hospital bed and shows what appear to be abrasions circling his neck while he lies comatose. There also appears to be blood around his mouth.
There are contradictory reports on whether Mr. Martinez used drugs. Raw Story:
Friends and family said he did not have drug use issues with substances like cocaine or meth.
But the
local CBS affiliate says otherwise:
Friends of his here in Vero Beach tell us he struggled with using meth and cocaine in recent years. That could be a factor--but it will proved or disproved during the toxicology tests underway tonight.
But whether or not he used drugs recently is beside the point. The bottom line is that there is a shroud of secrecy regarding the circumstances of Mr. Martinez's death. It is obvious that the Indian River County Sheriff's Department is handling its prisoners in a way that creates plausible deniability -- nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything; therefore, nobody can be charged with wrongdoing. Even if Mr. Martinez did use drugs, two wrongs don't make a right; it still does not justify the Indian River Sheriff's Department refusing to come clean and bring closure to the public.
The circumstances of Martinez's death are similar to that involving a certain town bully in Skidmore (MO) back in 1981. Someone shot him in broad daylight with dozens of witnesses. Nobody saw anything. Nobody was ever arrested over 30 years later. Except that unlike the Skidmore case, Mr. Martinez was not a bully.
“9 a.m. he goes to court. At noon he’s in the ICU. Nobody knows what happened," said Ryan Monto between pauses.
Monto and Brad Martinez are best friends from high school.
“See his pictures, always has a great smile on his face. Always makes everybody laugh. Just a really good guy to be around. A fun guy," said Monto.
A support page, with over 1,500 likes, has been set up
here.