Kara BergThe Detroit News
Three security guards whose arrest of a Black man at a Southfield mall in 2014 led to his death were indifferent to the man's pleas that he could not breathe and ignored the harm that could come from holding him face down on the ground, according to prosecutors.
But the security guards' attorneys argue the three men are not responsible for the death of McKenzie Cochran, 25 at the time of his death. Cochran was alive when police arrived, after the guards handcuffed him and propped him up against a pillar, said Wright Blake, the attorney for security guard Aaron Maree.
Cochran died Jan. 28, 2014, from positional compression asphyxia on the floor of the now-closed Northland Center in Southfield. He was asked to leave the mall after a store owner reported he had been acting suspiciously at a jewelry store.
He struggled with five guards — Maree, John Seiberling, Gaven King, Lucius Hamilton and Gary Chaffin — and was pepper sprayed and pinned to the floor. Witnesses said he could be heard saying, "I'm not resisting, I can't breathe," said Assistant Attorney General Robyn Liddell.
Seiberling, King, Hamilton and Maree were charged in 2021 with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Cochran's death. Chaffin died in 2017.
"McKenzie Cochran died because security guards, these three defendants — John Seiberling, Aaron Maree and Gaven King — held him face down on the floor," Liddell said. "For 11 minutes, the defendants had McKenzie face down on the floor, with their collective body weights on top of him."
Chaffin and Seiberling were the first two to confront Cochran at the LA Diamonds store at the mall. The owner of LA Diamonds, Labieb Ansara, called mall security and said Cochran was acting crazy and said, "I feel like killing someone," Liddell said.
Ansara told mall security “if you all don’t come get him, I’m going to shoot him," according to a motion from the AG's Office.
Seiberling and Chaffin came up to Cochran "looking for a confrontation," Liddell said. Cocharan was standing at the counter at LA Diamonds doing nothing, she said.
Chaffin asked Cochran to leave several times and stepped back to give him room, said Keefe Braxton, Seiberling's attorney. It wasn't until Cochran stepped toward Chaffin and Seiberling with his hands balled into fists that Chaffin pepper sprayed him, Braxton said. Chaffin and Seiberling struggled to restrain him, said Braxton and King's attorney Doraid Elder.
They were "getting their asses handed to them by Mr. Cochran," Elder said. They called in reinforcements and Hamilton arrived, followed by Maree and King.
Elder said King, who was 22 at the time, only attempted to grab Cochran's hand and hold it. In his first attempt, he said, he grabbed one of the other security guards instead.
"Mr. King did absolutely nothing more than try to control a man's hand that he saw fighting other security guards," Elder said.
Wright said Maree, too, only grabbed and restrained Cochran's wrist during what Wright called a "battle royale." Maree was not armed, Wright said; all he had was a pair of handcuffs.
"You're not going to hear anything about him putting his weight on this individual, kicking him, even saying anything to him," Wright said. "He just tries to grab Mr. Cochran's wrist and pull it aside because he's still struggling. My client doesn’t know particulars of this. Does he have a gun on him? Does he have a knife on him? He couldn’t see what was in his hands. Mr. Cochran is the one who kept struggling."
But Liddell said Seiberling sat on Cochran's legs and pulled on his ankles, while King and Maree "grabbed and pulled at his body as if he wasn’t even a person."
Cochran begged the guards to get off him, saying he couldn't breathe. By the time they rolled him over and propped him up, his eyes were closed and his head was down to his chest. The guards tried to give him water and it came back out of his mouth, Liddell said.
"These defendants were indifferent to McKenzie’s crying, they were indifferent to his screaming, they were indifferent to him begging for his life," Liddell said. "It was not a fair fight, it was five against one."
Hamilton, 60, pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter. During the hearing, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson indicated she was willing to give him a sentence of 90 days in the Oakland County Jail. Judges are not bound by the agreements they make during or prior to a plea deal.
Hamilton's attorney, Mohammed Nasser, said Hamilton has respiratory and heart issues after getting COVID-19 that could become a liability to the court and the Oakland County Jail if he was sentenced to jail time. He requested probation or home confinement for Hamilton, but Anderson said she would not do that Friday. Anderson said Nasser could ask again at sentencing.
“This is not your usual case,” Anderson said before telling Hamilton she would give him a Cobbs agreement of 90 days in jail. “All of the players have been available for the last 10 years and it’s taken this long for the people to bring the matter forth. However, there was loss of human life.”
Then-Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper declined to issue charges in September 2014 because she said there was no intent to kill and no chokeholds by the guards.
Cochran's family asked Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to review the case after George Floyd's 2020 death in Minneapolis. Nessel said "new interviews and evidence led to charges."
Cochran’s family settled a civil lawsuit outside of court.
kberg@detroitnews.com
