Harris Area Constable’s Workplace/ YouTube
More than a month after a Houston male passed away throughout a run-in with apprehension policemans inside the Harris Area Prison, inquiries concerning his first apprehension and the battle that preceded his fatality remain to stick around.
Alexis Cardenas, 32, passed away after he was limited by numerous apprehension policemans when he supposedly rejected to leave the prison in the morning hours of July 8.
Video clip video footage launched by the Harris Area Constable’s Workplace, which runs the midtown Houston prison, reveals policemans pinning Cardenas to the ground after he pulled back from the departure door and strolled towards a protected location of the prison. Policemans discovered Cardenas had actually come to be less competent 5 mins after policemans acquired control over him, according to message included in the video clip launched by the constable’s workplace.
He was noticable dead after being moved to a close-by medical facility.
RELATED: Video clip video footage reveals apprehension policeman run-in that resulted in male’s fatality in Harris Area Jail
A Texas Rangers examination right into the scenarios bordering Cardenas’ fatality is underway. And while region clinical inspectors still have actually not identified his reason of fatality, member of the family stated they have actually had a hard time to obtain info that might suggest why he was initial detained over a decade-old web traffic citation, or why he rejected to leave the prison upon his launch.
” I seem like currently they are simply keeping points as long as they perhaps can,” stated Melissa Cardenas, the male’s relative. “I seem like this is mosting likely to be the lengthiest point we have actually ever before needed to take care of to obtain any type of sort of responses. Anything.”
She stated she’s had a hard time to enter call with the Texas Rangers for an upgrade on their examination right into Cardenas’ fatality. The Texas Division of Public Safety and security, which looks after the Rangers, stated in a declaration to Houston Public Media that neighborhood police like the constable’s workplace generally take care of informing and offering info to the households of those that pass away behind bars.
” Throughout these examinations, the Texas Rangers connect frequently with the included firm and, sometimes, straight with the decedent’s household to maintain all interested events upgraded throughout the investigatory procedure,” the division stated. “Similar to any type of energetic examination, the Texas Rangers are dedicated to being as clear as feasible without jeopardizing the honesty of their examination– which consists of the launch of info to member of the family of the deceased.”
Last month, Cardenas’ household stated he was dealing with a psychological wellness dilemma when he was initial detained by Houston Authorities Division policemans on local costs. They stated he had actually initially come close to a policeman that day in concern for his life.
According to an apprehension record, Cardenas asserted he remained in healthiness at the time of the apprehension.
A comparable event taken place in April when Cardenas was rather required to a psychological wellness center in Richmond by a policeman, his relative stated. He had actually additionally been identified with anxiety previously this year, according to Melissa Cardenas.
” He came close to a policeman, [the] very same scenario occurred, however the policeman, as opposed to taking him to prison, took him to this center,” she stated.
He dealt with periodic depressive episodes after a mishap in 2023 in which he shed numerous fingers, and he remained in the center in April for concerning a week, Melissa Cardenas stated.
Houston Public Media submitted an open documents ask for the body cam video clip and video footage of Cardenas’ July 6 apprehension and transport to the Harris Area Prison. The Houston Authorities Division stated it would certainly take “as much as” 220 company days and greater than $215 in costs to generate the video footage. The existing ETA for the video clip’s launch is July 9, 2026.
That action questioned for Lee Thweatt, a Houston-area lawyer that stands for Cardenas’ household.
” Commonly, what occurs in these demands is they claim that there’s a pending examination and we do not intend to jeopardize it,” he stated. “They point out investigatory benefit.”
Taking practically a year to generate body cam video footage without appealing the demand to the Texas chief law officer’s workplace is a strategy Thweatt stated he has yet to come across.
Texas legislation specifies governmental bodies must, within 10 days, launch info, offer a created notification of the day and time the info will certainly be launched, or look for to keep info with an interest the chief law officer’s workplace.
The cops division, nevertheless, mentioned a stockpile of public info demands as the reason for the hold-up. Jodi Silva, a speaker for the Houston Authorities Division, stated there are a lot more demands can be found in daily than the variety of employees that’s offered to reply to the demands.
” It is based upon what the existing work is,” she stated. “The existing work for body cam video clips is severe.”
Jason Spencer, a speaker for the Harris Area Constable’s Workplace, stated it has actually launched “all the video clip we have” of Cardenas’ communications with constable’s workplace workers “up till we started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”
It continues to be vague why Cardenas was not drawn away for psychological wellness solutions at the time he was brought right into the Harris Area Prison if he was dealing with a psychological wellness dilemma at the time. Throughout the reservation procedure in the Harris Area Prison, a clinical testing kind is submitted to figure out if an individual is dealing with psychological or physical conditions prior to they are scheduled. The screening kind, which covers 38 inquiries, asks if an individual is listening to sounds that individuals do not appear to listen to, or if they are fretted that somebody could injure or eliminate them.
In a press rundown last month, Harris Area Constable Ed Gonzalez stated Cardenas’ clinical screening kind really did not reveal any type of significant physical or psychological wellness problems.
His household, nevertheless, keeps that the testing procedure failed him throughout consumption.
” At the end of the day, we aren’t requesting for something that isn’t accessible,” she stated. “We are just requesting for what we require and what everyone requires to see.”
