Benites Saimon Sichiro

How they died

Less-than-lethal force

Sichiro was picked up for three outstanding misdemeanor warrants and his mugshot shows he was beaten. Because of alcohol withdrawal symptoms he was booked into Spokane County Jail 2West, a medical unit. He was "speaking in a different language" and resisted when guards tried to move him to a monitored cell. He was tasered, hit and carried there by Sgt. Steve Long and Deputy Ted Tosfrud. He resisted a medical check and was hit and kneed by Sgt. Long, and Officer Tim Christopherson, and "donkey kicked" by Deputy John Elam while putting him under a cell bunk. The guards returned to place Sichiro in a restraint chair and he was immediately tasered by Deputy Todd Belitz. Tosfrud tasered him several times as they placed him in the chair. Sichiro lost consciousness and died at Deaconess Medical Center of a lacerated liver. An inmate stated that he did not hear the guards give Sichiro verbal commands before tasering him, and that although Sichiro did not speak much English he told the guards in English that he was dying, but they kept telling him to stand up. Elam's donkey kick was ruled the cause of death, and a homicide; he became a police officer several weeks later and was fired the first day on the job after lying about a car crash. In 2009 Sichiro's children won a $425,000 wrongful death settlement from the Spokane County Commission.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Benites Saimon Sichiro, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources