The brother of a well-known Denver police critic was in critical condition late Friday after an altercation with police in which his family says he was severely beaten.
The man was being kept alive by a ventilator after he twice stopped breathing while fighting with police and had to be resuscitated both times by officers, according to authorities and family members.
Police did not confirm the name, but family members identified the man as 37-year-old Thomas Charles Armstrong, the brother of outspoken police watchdog Earl Armstrong, 38.
Earl Armstrong said his brother, who was dead on arrival at University Hospital, was again revived by hospital staff and required a blood transfusion for abdominal injuries, something hospital officials would not confirm. A Denver Post reporter who saw Thomas Armstrong in the intensive-care unit verified that he is on a ventilator.
Late Friday afternoon, Police Chief Gerry Whitman said it was not clear whether facial injuries, including blackened eyes, on the 6-foot, 160 pound Thomas Armstrong were the result of his scuffle with police early Friday or were pre-existing.
Whitman said he supports the officers involved.
“It looks like the officers did exactly what they were supposed to do,” said Whitman, who responded to the scene overnight at East 11th Avenue and Xenia Street. “It was a fight from the moment the officer got out of his car, on the part of the suspect. Then the officer went on to save his life. It was a violent fight between one officer and one suspect, and that officer had to call for help. I think it’s admirable that when the fight was over, they saved him.”
Family members vehemently disagreed.
“There’s no cause or justification for my brother to be in the position he’s in now,” Earl Armstrong said Friday afternoon, standing in front of the hospital. “You don’t have to kill a person to restrain him.”
Friday afternoon, police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez gave the following account of events: A police officer on his way to a silent alarm call at 1 a.m. Friday saw a man acting suspiciously. When the officer stopped and got out of his car, the man attacked him, striking him with his fists, Lopez said.
During the struggle, the officer called for backup, but before help arrived, the man collapsed and was not breathing, she said, so the officer revived him.
As several other officers arrived at the scene, the suspect regained consciousness and began fighting them, Lopez said.
The officers controlled the man using only handcuffs and their hands, she said. The man again stopped breathing and officers resuscitated him a second time, Lopez said, before paramedics took him to the hospital.
Armstrong said his brother, a father of four kids who range in age from 11 to 17, has a history of drinking and smoking marijuana. Thomas Armstrong’s girlfriend, Syrita Henderson, 31, said they had a fight and he left her home drunk shortly before 1 a.m.
Still, his brother said, Thomas Armstrong did not use other drugs and would not have attacked a police officer.
“We see the police, we’re juicing it,” he said, indicating running away.
He said his brother’s incident was retaliation by the department against him and his family for an internal affairs complaint that Earl Armstrong filed against Denver police officers two years ago, as well as for criticism that he has leveled against the department for officer- involved shootings.
“This is not by chance,” Armstrong said. “Ever since I’ve been making statements about the murders by the Denver Police Department, the Police Department has been on a systematic plan to attack me and my family.”
Armstrong referred to several officer-involved shootings, including one in July 2003 in which a Denver police officer shot and killed disabled teenager Paul Childs as Childs held a knife at the door to his home. Last year, an officer shot an unarmed Frank Lobato as the disabled man lay in his bed. Both shootings prompted protests, and after Childs’ shooting, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office made sweeping reforms, including the creation of an independent police monitor.
Richard Rosenthal, who began that job Aug. 1, said he responded to the scene at 11th and Xenia about 3 a.m., his first time responding as police monitor. The Denver homicide unit was conducting the investigation, which Rosenthal called “objective, fair and thorough.”
“I was impressed as to the details,” he said, “and I had great access” as he monitored the interviews of two civilian eyewitnesses and four police officers. Rosenthal declined to say what he learned from those interviews.
Police officials declined to give the exact number of officers involved in the scuffle or to identify them yet.
“They need to go home and notify their loved ones what happened before their families see it on the news,” said Denver Division Chief Dave Fisher, who cautioned patience as the details emerge. “People have to realize an investigation needs to be done and judge the facts and the evidence of the case, and not evaluate this on an emotional level.”
Fisher said police have denied visitation to Thomas Armstrong, including from his family, because the man is under police custody and considered a prisoner and therefore subject to security restrictions.
The entire situation, he said, is a difficult one.
“My heart goes out to anyone involved in this,” Fisher said.
The case is being handled by the Denver Criminal Investigation Division and the Denver district attorney’s office, he said, and will be monitored by the Internal Affairs Bureau.
Records show Thomas Armstrong has served 19 jail sentences since 1989 for mostly misdemeanor convictions, including marijuana possession, drunken driving, assault and refusing orders from police officers. He faces felony charges of assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, Lopez said.
Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at 303-820-1752 or aherdy@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
