Ten months after his in-custody death, video shows police kicking and punching Matthew Ajibade

Matthew Ajibade, alive and well

Matthew Ajibade, alive and well

On January 1, 2015, Matthew Ajibade died in custody after his family called police for assistance. He was having a severe mental health crisis and his family begged police to take him to the hospital, along with his medicine.

Police in Savannah, Georgia decided to take him to jail instead.

For the past 10 months the police, the jail, and prosecutors have refused to release any videos from Ajibade's brief time in custody that would shed light on the circumstances surrounding his death. Now that several officers are on trial, a short segment of video was played for those that were present in open court.

In it, two things appear to be obvious:

1. Ajibade appears physically fit and severely delusional. He is disturbed by the colors of the chairs in the room. He just can't get past it. This is just further confirmation that he was in urgent need of medical intervention.

2. Ajibade, who died within hours of this incident, is seen being punched repeatedly and kicked in the back of the head by police. This is extremely relevant because his autopsy revealed blunt force trauma to his head and upper body. His death was ruled a homicide.

Nine officers were fired for a variety of offenses in Ajibade's death, but answers are still hard to come by.

The partial video is below. Officers claimed they suffered a broken nose and concussion from their altercation with Ajibade. Is that from the confrontation shown below? It doesn't appear so.

What happened to Ajibade in his cell? Was he injured further?

When I posed the question to local reporters regarding the rest of the video, this was their answer.

@ShaunKing the DA's office also denied my open records request for tendered evidence; they're required to produce copies if requested.

— Dave Kartunen (@WSAVDave) October 7, 2015