The family of a man injured in an altercation with Denver police are ready to remove him from life support and are holding a protest tonight because of what they say was excessive force.
Thomas Charles Armstrong, 37, has been in critical condition since the encounter with police Friday night.
“He is living off the drugs that University Hospital is pumping through him, but my brother is really dead,” Earl Armstrong said, adding that his brother has severe internal injuries.
He said the family had decided to halt life support Sunday but that doctors persuaded his mother to wait at least until this morning.
Earl Armstrong, who has been a critic of police, said his family has been a target of police for years because of his activism.
Police say Thomas Armstrong was under the influence of drugs and acting suspiciously early Friday at East 11th Avenue and Xenia Street. When an officer approached him, a fight began.
Additional officers were called to help subdue Armstrong, who was not armed, police said.
Officers used no weapons, but during the scuffle Armstrong stopped breathing, police said, and officers revived him.
Family members acknowledge that cocaine was found in Armstrong’s urine and blood, but they say he didn’t use cocaine and that police manipulated the test results.
Denver police have denied any wrongdoing, although a standard internal investigation is underway, as well as an investigation by the city’s independent police monitor.
“The members of the Denver Police Department are not going to respond to outlandish allegations from those that are pursuing their own agenda and are driven by emotion and speculation,” said Detective Virginia Lopez, a police spokeswoman. “It is unfortunate that there has been no talk from anyone about individuals being held responsible for their own actions such as illegal use of extreme narcotics … and we all know what they can do to a person’s rational actions and thinking.”
The group Denver CopWatch issued a statement Sunday saying Armstrong’s injuries were the result of excessive force.
“Trained professional police officers should be capable of restraining an unarmed suspect without causing severe head injuries or damage to internal organs,” the statement said. “The injuries also indicate that the officers were not using proper use of force techniques as laid out by the police manual.”
CopWatch is holding a community gathering at the District 2 police station, 3921 Holly St., today at 6 p.m.
Earl Armstrong said reports that his brother had been arrested 39 times were erroneous.
Thomas Armstrong’s record in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation database lists his arrests along with those of two of his brothers under the same date of birth, which skews the results, Earl Armstrong said.
Thomas Armstrong had been to jail in the past in cases involving marijuana and driving under the influence, but he had no felony convictions, his brother said. Earl Armstrong said his brother used marijuana but not cocaine.
The brothers’ father, Earl Flanders Armstrong, was shot and killed by a Prowers County undersheriff in 1980. Some reports have indicated that Thom as Armstrong resented police because of that, but Earl Armstrong said Sunday that he is the one who carried the anger.
“I’m the one who possessed the resentment,” he said. “Don’t put that on my brother. That’s me.”
Earl Armstrong said Thomas would rather run away than get into a fight.
He blames the officers for his brother’s injuries and wants the public to hold them responsible.
“I’ve lost my father and brother by the police,” Earl Armstrong said. “I ask the people of this city, what would they do?”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
