After medical examiner rules Baltimore man’s death a homicide, family plans lawsuit

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The family of Dontae Melton Jr., a Baltimore man who died after an encounter with police in June amid a behavioral health crisis, plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department.

The decision to sue came after the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Melton’s death to be a homicide. The Baltimore Banner first reported the finding by the medical examiner last week; other news organizations confirmed it, but the OCME has not released its full investigation or any other information.

Melton, 31, approached an officer in a car in West Baltimore around 9:40 p.m. on June 24, begging for help and asking to get in the car. He claimed someone was following him and said he was having trouble breathing. The officer called for a medic to take him to the hospital, but no one came, according to bodycam footage, news coverage of the footage and Melton’s family’s lawyers.

Melton was walking erratically in a busy intersection; eventually the officer forced him to the ground and called for backup. Several officers restrained him, put him in handcuffs, shackled his legs and put a protective helmet on his head. Melton was yelling and attempted to break free.

One of the officers said his pulse felt “crazy hot,” so they poured water on him.

By 10:15, Melton was unconscious and unresponsive, and they laid him on the ground. Ten minutes later, they put him in the car and took him to a nearby hospital. He died early the next morning.

Larry Greenberg, one of the family’s lawyers, said he should have been taken to the hospital immediately.

“They didn’t care,” Greenberg said at a news conference Tuesday. “They left him on the ground like trash.”

Melton was the third person to die after encounters with Baltimore police in less than two weeks in June. The medical examiner’s homicide finding appears to be the first since a scathing audit by the OAG earlier this year found that three dozen police-involved deaths across the state in a 20-year stretch should have been considered homicides.

The determination that a death was a homicide does not necessarily trigger criminal charges against the officers involved.

Greenberg said the family would file its lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court after the Maryland Office of the Attorney General finishes its own investigation to determine if criminal charges are warranted. He said police officers may not be the only ones named as defendants, given the apparent failure of a communication system used by emergency personnel.

He noted that the OCME’s homicide finding did not include any further details about how Melton died.

“We found out half a story,” Greenberg told The Daily Record, “not the whole story.”

A Baltimore Police Department spokeswoman said the department had not yet received the autopsy report and otherwise declined to comment. The Baltimore City Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.