With her son suffering from serious mental distress, Caroline Ouko knew getting him immediate help was her only course of action.
But she was aware of how incidents involving the mentally ill can go awry when police are called. So Ouko contacted her 28-year-old son’s psychiatrist’s office for help on March 3 when her son, Irvo N. Otieno, showed signs of duress.
“I asked that he please indicate to [authorities] that Irvo is going through mental distress, and if they can come out with someone who is specialized that can talk with him — and possibly help us get him to the hospital,” Ouko said.
Henrico County police responded, but not as a result of a doctor contacting them. Police received a call from a neighbor about a possible burglary in the neighborhood, and Otieno was a suspect.
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Over the next 72 hours, a series of events were set in motion that left Otieno dead and his family reeling.
Otieno was taken to Henrico Doctors’ Hospital on the morning of March 3, a Friday, then later to Henrico Jail, and finally to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County on Monday — where he died.
The circumstances of his death remain unexplained.
His death came as he was being admitted while in the custody of Henrico sheriff’s deputies who transported him. Authorities said he became combative and had to be restrained.
“Something went wrong,” Ouko told the Richmond Times-Dispatch during a visit to her Henrico home, where she and family members were arranging to recover Otieno’s body from the state medical examiner’s office.
The family said they have no answers about what led to Otieno’s death.
Members of a Virginia State Police special investigations team drove to the family’s home on Tuesday to notify them an investigation is underway.
“We tried to ask them questions, can you tell us what happened?” said Marlene Jones, Otieno’s cousin. “And they said all of this is still under investigation; we will communicate that information when it becomes available.”
10 to 12 police officers spread out on her front yard
Although Otieno suffered from periodic bouts of mental illness beginning in his late teens, Ouko said her son does not have a record of violence. “Even when he’s so much in distress, he stays in the house, he’s right here within the corners of this home at night,” said Ouko, whose family is from Kenya, adding that her son was born there and came to the U.S. when he was 4.
She described Otieno, a 2012 graduate of Douglas Freeman High School who played football and basketball, as the “peacemaker in the family” — a young man with a big heart.
He attended Henrico County Public Schools and was a honor student and athlete at Armstrong High School. He went to college for two years in California, where his mental health problems first surfaced. His family said he had been diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders, and had prior hospitalizations.
He worked in the music industry and wrote and recorded songs, Ouko said, and was in the process of building his own record label at the time of his death. “My son was the kind of man who had a big heart for others,” Ouko said. “He always believed in treating others right. And he believed in listening to a story and drawing his own conclusions. He was not a follower; he was a leader.”
When police showed up that fateful Friday, March 3, Ouko believed they were responding as a result of her call to Otieno’s psychiatrist’s office. She had spoken with a neighbor about light fixtures her son had pulled from the neighbor’s yard, but believed the matter had been settled after she offered to compensate the neighbor, and explaining her son was experiencing mental distress.
But when she looked out her window, she saw 10 to 12 police officers spread out on her front yard. She called for her son to come downstairs, and she held his hand and they walked out onto the front stoop.
“The officers had their tasers out ready to taser,” she said. “I wrapped myself around my son; I was scared for his safety.”
Ouko asked the officers to put away their tasers because the weapons were scaring her son, and he felt uncomfortable when they tried talking to him. “I could see it in his eyes.”
Based on their interaction with and observation of Otieno, officers placed him under an emergency protective order, according to police. Members of the county’s Crisis Intervention Team were on scene to assist the officers, police said.
Otieno was eventually handcuffed and led to a police cruiser, but he balked, Ouko said. Ouko urged police to call an ambulance and, when one arrived, he willingly got inside and was taken to Henrico Doctors’ Hospital.
Ouko said she initially was hopeful that Otieno would receive the treatment he needed at the hospital, and a doctor advised that he would take care of him.
But as more time passed and Ouko was not allowed to see her son, she eventually learned that an incident occurred between Otieno and officers who were still at the hospital. Police said he became physically aggressive toward the officers. Ouko asked to talk with police, and an officer came out and showed his arm, noting Otieno had pulled something off.
Ouko later learned her son had been taken to Henrico Jail. He was charged with three counts of assault and battery of a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct on hospital grounds and destruction of property. The latter charge was for damaging an officer’s uniform, according to court records.
Ouko said Henrico Jail, which is operated by the sheriff’s office, was not where her son belonged. “I said, this is the wrong place for this young man; he’s in mental distress, can you help me?” Ouko said of her conversation with a jail employee.
When she returned to the jail on Saturday, Ouko was able to get in touch with a social worker and provided her son’s medical history and a list of his medications, but then learned he could not be provided with his meds until he was seen by a jail physician on Monday.
Judges denies granting bail
When Ouko arrived at Henrico General District Court on Monday for her son’s appearance on his charges, she said he appeared on a video monitor and raised his hands in a flailing motion, “almost lifeless.” The expression on his face was “almost like a grimace, like he’s gripping in pain,” Ouko said.
Ouko said she pleaded with the judge to get her son treatment right away.
As Ouko was leaving the courtroom, she heard the judge say her son might be taken to Central State Hospital. “And I said, ‘No, please, no. My son needs to be stabilized, he needs to be treated. Please get the medicine in him. We have a private doctor. If we can get him stable, he can come out.’”
The judge denied granting bail.
The family was not aware until Tuesday that Otieno had been taken to Central State Hospital and had died, although state police officers knocked on their door around 3:45 a.m. to break the grim news. Ouko said she was awakened by the knocks but was afraid to answer because of the time. She called 911.
Later that day, the family said they tried but failed to get answers from the Henrico Sheriff’s Office about where Otieno was being held, and whether he was alive or dead, so they called the state medical examiner’s office. The family provided Otieno’s name and other identifying information, and were advised that his body was there and a doctor was conducting an examination.
“So we asked questions like, ‘how did he get there? What happened?’” Jones said. The family was told that about 4:30 p.m. Monday, Otieno was being transferred to Central State Hospital and that he “fell unconscious and they were not able to revive him.”
“So we were asking, ‘did he die on the way to Central State or did he make it to Central State?’” Jones said. “They did not have that information.”
As it turned out, a representative of either the sheriff’s office or the medical examiner’s office tried Tuesday morning to notify Ouko of her son’s death, but she was too distraught to answer the door. Ouko said the person was wearing a coroner’s office identification tag. “I felt something happened and I just lost it. I just cried and cried and cried,” she said.
Henrico Sheriff Alisa Gregory has declined to comment on the events involving her office, citing the ongoing state police investigation.
