A black man named D’vontaye Mitchell, 43, was killed by hotel security guards at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee over a “disturbance” in the lobby. With the interaction captured on video and Mitchell’s family calling it a George Floyd-style murder, this could shortly explode into nationwide news.
Security Guards At Hyatt Regency Milwaukee Kill Black Man After Lobby Disturbance
This incident happened at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee on June 30, 2024 around 4:00 pm. 11 days later, it is still not clear what happened inside to prompt Mitchell’s eventual death, but here is what we know thus far:
- According to the police report, a fight broke out in the lobby, Mitchell was escorted out, but resisted his removal
- Four security guards pinned him down in the driveway outside the lobby (both white and black)
- One of the guards appears to hit Mitchell on his head with an object loud enough to be heard on camera
- When one of the guards noticed that people were filming, he yelled out, “This is what happens when you go into the ladies room! This is what happens when a man goes in the…” (before being cut off)
- Mitchell was told to “stay down” and “stop fighting”
- Police were called and found him unresponsive; paramedics were unable to resuscitate him
- The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office has preliminarily ruled his death a homicide, but
- Mitchell’s family later told investigators that he had faced “mental health issues” for years and had battled depression since his father’s death in 2016
Here’s some video captured by a witness:
New video tonight on @CBS58: at least four security guards restraining Dvontaye Mitchell outside a hotel.
Mitchell is heard saying "Please!" several times as a guard says, "Stay down!" & "Stop fighting!"
The guard also appears to repeatedly hit Mitchell in the head with an object pic.twitter.com/0ehvXqeXJU— Adam Rife (@AdamRifeReports) July 2, 2024
Hotel conglomerate Aimbridge, which owns the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, said:
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to Dvontaye Mitchell’s family, all those who knew and loved him, and the Milwaukee community in light of this tragedy. As the investigation continues, Hyatt is fully committed to supporting efforts to help ensure accountability for the circumstances that led to the death of Dvontaye Mitchell.”
Seeing a payday, Mitchell’s family has hired attorney Ben Crump:
NEWS ALERT: @AttorneyCrump has been retained by the family of 43-year-old Dvontaye Mitchell, a Black man who was killed by security guards outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Sunday, June 30. pic.twitter.com/dIVRQEJhaI
— Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) July 3, 2024
His funeral will be on Thursday with the Rev. Al Sharpton delivering remarks. Mitchell’s sister has vowed, “We are not going to stop until we get justice. We are not going to allow his death to be swept under the rug.”
I’m writing about this case because I expect we will be hearing a lot more about it in the coming days. This case has many disturbing elements and unanswered questions and could explode into a nationwide controversy, much like the death of Geroge Floyd in 2020.
CONCLUSION
At this point, it’s far too early to point fingers and assign blame after a black man was killed following a disturbance in the lobby of a Hyatt Regency hotel in Milwaukee. Even so, Mitchell’s death is a tragedy, as is the premature loss of every human life.
Whatever ultimately happened on June 30th, it’s a good reminder that private “rent-a-cops” are largely unregulated and wield immense power to inflict harm. You cannot help but wonder if there was another way to get a troubled man out of a hotel lobby…
Airports ought to have security checks before entering the airport grounds . Office buildings ought to have security checks before entering the elevators . Banks ought to have security checks before entering the bank lobbies .
This is the reality in much of the world and I find it pathetic. So sad that “we all can’t get along.”
@Matthew … +1 . Israel will need security checks now and in the future . Having a rock party close to Gaza was a big mistake .
When one group is 13% of the population and commits 60% of the violent crime, no we can’t all get along. It’s an unnatural state for different groups to be forced together. We are in a constant state of misery and disharmony because the product of slavery and colonialism continue. The answer to slavery and colonialism is not to continue the circumstances that it led to.
My sympathy 100% goes out to the real victims: the security guards, citizens, and home owners who have to resort to self defense against violent criminals.
Some of you commenting are privilleged evil idiots.
It is because of people like you that innocent black people are murdered.
But of course, why would you care when you are white and do not have to worry about such nonsense as racism and police brutality.
Disgusting
My hotel stays in some parts ofAfrica and South Asia have security checks to enter the hotel grounds and/or hotel lobby. But at those hotels, it’s not unusual for those who are perceived to be blue collar workers or poor locals to be denied access to the hotel’s bathrooms even if allowed to come into the lobby.
He doesn’t appear to have been armed (or had any sort of weapon), so I’m not sure if the security check really would have mattered.
Democrats looking for another excuse to burn the country down and canonize another saint like they did with saint George
“Peaceful protests.”
FIERY but peaceful protests
If there is rioting and violence over this, it will only play into Trump’s hands.
How’s that?
It would be like a 1968 redux.
It’s telling that your first worry is not the businesses or the people that may be affected negatively by any potential riots, but orange man
Who said anything about my “first” or “primary” worry? But local riots in Milwaukee could have a nationwide impact if we have another summer of 2020…and that could impact this election by drawing more moderate voters away from the incumbent.
Don’t worry about moderates regarding this issue, they’re already moving away from the corpse-in-chief well on their own after that debate performance and the continuing fallout
Just practicing up for next week’s Republican National Convention and full-blown US fascism coming in Project 2025. Nothing to see here, move along, all hail Dear Leader!
What’s the matter? Looking at the polls and starting to sweat?
@Chi … Good one .
As a rather well-read student of history, former President Clinton knew what he was saying when he once sort of said: “strong and wrong beats weak but right”.
Any good student of political history over the millennia would realize that fascism would have an allure for the insecure masses and that demagogues can work that “protective father”-seeking by the insecure. The original concept of a tyrant was a person who had overwhelming support of the demos and could play that initial public support into the launch of authoritarian rule under the popular leader. The modern day successor to the tyrants of ancient lore are wannabe fascists in constitutional democracies. And wannabe fascists sort of need an enemy at home and an enemy abroad that can be used to rally the insecure to support them. Biden can’t play that game. Trump is predictably playing that game as could be expected from someone not falling far from the apple tree (i.e., his father’s side). What Trump would want is violent chaos on the streets of Milwaukee and across the country.
It shouldn’t be news that Biden was set to lose the electoral college vote even before this year. He’s never been a campaign star — which is why Obama had dissuaded Biden from running against Hillary in 2016. Unfortunately for the Democrats, Biden’s ego is such that he probably thinks he could have beaten Trump in 2016 and thinks he can do it again in 2024. He can’t.
It wouldn’t surprise me if one or more of the security guards involved in this incident were previously expected to pad their income by doing double duty as security guards for the Republican convention or related events.
There are definitely too many rent-a-cop/rent-a-guard types who are just itching for opportunities to bash people, and working after hours and summers provides extra opportunities for that kind of misbehavior. And unfortunately even the uniformed cops can be complicit by hanging back or slowing down their response time in order to “let the beating continue” and “let them teach ____ a lesson!” and then giving the excessively violent guards a pass by blaming the person the guards pounced upon even after removing them outside.
It’s always horrible when someone loses their life and thoughts and prayers to Mitchell’s family.
I don’t get why Al Sharpton needs to drum this up when the full details haven’t been resolved. I’m black and grew up in Inglewood, one of the most violent communities in America, and he never brings attention to the biggest issues- poverty and gang violence- when they hurt us more.
Not following the 10 Commandments is thee cause of gang violence and crime .
Crime is the cause of poverty .
Politicians are the cause of false promises and inflation .
Why does Rev. Sharpton drum this up? Because it’s his stock in trade.
Ben Crump will be appearing soon also….
F around, find out.
Very tragic this happened and condolences to the family. Jumping to conclusions prematurely and trying to make this into a political issue is always a bad idea, but I guess political figures need a way to capitalize.
Sometimes when you look for trouble you find it…..and sometimes you end up dead.
Time to tee up another summer of rioting and mayhem just in time for the elections.
And of course it’s a big deal because Black people should be allowed to act like animals and criminals without pesky white people stopping them.
How to say you’re racist without saying you’re racist
Not sure. How would you say that you’re a retard without actually calling yourself a retard? Ah, you just did.
Straight up showed that you don’t got jack for brains on top of being a racist by not being able to read. Have fun at the KKK rally tonight and hope your robe catches on fire
Why don’t you lick what I have under the robe?
The old ‘how to say without saying’ card. Words for them that can’t think of their own words.
The War on the West by Douglas Murray.
…let the war go on
@Nick … Douglas Murray is a treasure … a Sane and Rational voice in an insane world .
As is Thomas Sowell .
And myself .
@Alert. Send me your stuff, I’ll be the judge;)
Sowell and Murray need no introduction!
@Nick … My readers need dark sunglasses for protection from my brilliance .
I certainly do
Thanks for the laugh!!
He’s a far-right wacko who in public tries to hide in sheep’s clothing.
This is an Aimbridge property. That’s interesting because Hyatt manages most of its Hyatt Regency properties. I was unaware until now that a huge property not far from Hyatt’s corporate headquarters wasn’t, in fact, managed by Hyatt. But that would explain the property. Aimbridge is notorious for cost-cutting by neglecting property maintenance and having horrible F&B offerings. They do nothing more than the brand minimum. The Milwaukee Hyatt Regency is one of the most tired Hyatt Regency properties. I stayed there earlier this year. I was shocked they didn’t at least freshly paint walls and put in new carpet for the big Republican convention next week as it’s right by the convention center.
I wonder if Rev. Al will stop by Chicago (where 100 black people were shot last weekend) on his safari to middle America? Probably not. I miss Jesse Jackson. He at least was entertaining.
keep waiting, if there is no money involved, Al won’t be there!!!
If he’s not been in town already he is going to be as I already heard him say he would be coming to Milwaukee. Even before this incident and his announcement, I thought he would be in Milwaukee anyway for the Republican convention.
@ Matthew- your title says he was killed by security guards. I thought they are still investigating???
The investigation is whether it is a lawful or unlawful killing.
He was killed by the security guards. The original medical examinations had it determined to be homicide. The police seemed to want to suppress that finding.
What is interesting is how long it took for this to become a national news story after the incident and footage came to my attention. I happened to be in WI when this happened. This guy should have been able to enjoy taking his daughter to Wisconsin Dells this summer with the highest water slide in at least the country. But now his young daughter will be father-less — all because her father needed to use a restroom in a hotel lobby instead of relieving himself as happens out in the open in South Asia and happened to not look and dress like a German or Polish-American business guy.
Ironically, the city’s airport and the guy killed at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee share the same last name.
Hyatt HQ has passed the buck for this homicide to Aimbridge “Hospitality” whose hotel this one is.
Seems like you have it all figured out!
Why haven’t they hired you?
Tthanks for the vote of confidence. 😉
I don’t care, and why black man has to matter?.Will the news be more important if the man was white or green?
Because black people are special and so when they get killed its a much bigger deal than if any of us with less melanin die.
Because how someone looks and dresses does play a role in how hotel security pays attention or not to persons in and around the lobby. But give it to the more privileged by looks and life to try to be more likely to be dismissive of the discriminatory ways of the world and the security risks involved in being born different and a visible minority.
Well I’m ruggedly handsome and quite muscular so I am generally treated well.
Additionally, from a statistical perspective people like me are less likely to commit petty crimes, whereas the same cannot be said about our African American friends. A security guard looking at the well-dressed, handsome and fit white man probably knows that I am not going to make any trouble. A young, fat black guy on the other hand I would think arouses more suspicion. The bad reputation is earned unfortunately given the high crime rate among that demographic. I would not call this privilege since they brought that upon themselves with their lawless behavior. It is just a shame that all of them are affected by the troublemakers.
I myself do not know what it feels like to be fat and ugly. I would hardly call this privilege either since it took some effort to get this way, but perhaps you could illuminate me? My mental image of you looks like a fat George Patton with a wig and three teeth so I think you’ve probably suffered because of your appearance?
You definitely don’t qualify as being attractive in my view. But I can’t speak to heterosexual or LGBTQ+ people who may get turned on by sexual relations with presenting CIS heterosexual males who seem to be “KKK adjacent”. Maybe you are very attractive to them and can get lucky that way.
There’s nothing “Cis presenting” about me my friend. I’m a man, as opposed to a woman. Those are the only choices, and if you’re not attracted to one or the other then I certainly don’t want to hear about it.
BoBo you drank the KOOLAIDE!!
Interesting how the dupe squad sees this through a political lens and how they can manipulate the story that way rather than human interest.
Another case of FOFA from the usual demographic.
*******
A spokeswoman for Hyatt said in an email on Thursday that hotel workers who were involved in the episode had been terminated by Aimbridge Hospitality, a management company which operates the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee franchise. The spokeswoman did not say how many workers were fired.
“Aimbridge Hospitality has taken the right action in terminating the employees involved, and we continue to believe that criminal charges should be filed,” the spokeswoman said.
******
That’s quoted from The New York Times.
That means Hyatt believes that criminal charges should be filed against one or more of the so-called security guards who were working at the hotel and involved in the homicide of Mitchell.
From CNN:
*******
The local prosecutor is investigating Mitchell’s death as a homicide, he said Wednesday, but Milwaukee Police were not considering the incident as a criminal investigation because there wasn’t any evidence of “blunt force,” Crump has said.
******
Arguably, blunt force was produced from his being forced to the ground and kept to the ground — for which there is evidence. The act of intentionally throwing someone against a wall or floor to physically coerce or intimidate is a deliberate blunt force attack.
wow really. can you just put “Man” in the clickbait title instead of “Black Man”. think how ridiculous it sounds if you say “Asian Man”
The family has made this about race, so it is a pretty important distinction.
“Policing” of “black” and “brown” minorities by “security” is not uniform with the “policing” of the “white” majority — or even the “white” minority — in various parts of the world. And so the likelihood/risk of a “white” Swedish-American getting harassed by hotel security for trying to use the hotel bathroom is different than it is for a “black” African-American in the US or a Nigerian-American in Belgium or Greece doing the same thing.
It’s some combination of ignorant, dishonest or racist to dismiss the reality of how racist prejudices change the expected outcome/risk for a given action based on a person’s perceived ethnicity, religion, sex and age. If Mitchell were say a 95-year old “white” Swedish-American grandmother Victoria who walked in off the street and headed toward or into the men’s bathroom and said and did the same thing, hotel security wouldn’t have been all over the person for the bathroom visit drop-in. You know it, whether you want to publicly acknowledge it or not.
The Milwaukee police are expecting about 5-8k protesters in response to the Republican convention in Milwaukee, but very little of it seems to have anything to do with a protest against the hotel’s security staff or the Milwaukee police response to the incident at the hotel.
The Chicago police are going to have to expect mulitples of that number of protesters when the Democratic convention is in Chicago.
I hope this brings to attention the woefully inadequate regulations and requirements behind security guards. In many states, all it takes is a 40-hour course and a background check, and even then many get paid under the table if they wouldn’t pass the check. We live in a society now with a lot of these guards but they have very little training or credentials. We should not be feeling safer in their presence at this rate.
There are now arrest warrants issued against the 4 people involved in the homicide:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/06/us/dvontaye-mitchell-death-charges/index.html
The security manager, the security guard, a front desk receptionist and a hotel bellman are charged with felony murder of some sort.