DeKalb County mother sues after son dies in police restraint

Jashari held back tears at the press conference to announce the lawsuit against DeKalb County, the officers and a mental health counselor who came to the family home in February 2024.

DeKalb officers left Pilici, 49, face down for several minutes despite years of research that the prone position can cause a person to stop breathing or die, said Jeff Filipovits, a lawyer for the family.

“DeKalb County families need reassurance that if they call for help for a loved one who is having a mental health crisis that this will not happen to them,” Filipovits said. “The training is simple, the fix is simple and we hope the county will implement it immediately.”

When asked for comment, the DeKalb County Police Department said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Wingo Smith, another lawyer representing the Pilici family, said a mobile crisis unit that works in partnership with county police needlessly escalated the incident, which led to Arben Pilici being arrested.

A police officer put his 270-pound body on Pilici’s back and laid a forearm across his neck as he was held face down on the ground for eight minutes, according to the complaint.

Officers then handcuffed Pilici and laid him face down across the rear of a police vehicle for another 15 minutes, where he stopped breathing, according to the lawsuit. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

“As long as we use violence to address mental health needs in our community, we will continue to kill people that we say that we want to help,” Smith said.

At least 31 people, mostly men, have died after being restrained by Georgia law enforcement in the past decade, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found. Several people died after being left face down in police vehicles, the AJC found. The media organization’s findings were cited in the lawsuit.

For more than a decade, Georgia police academy trainers have instructed officers not to leave people face down and handcuffed. That follows a warning 30 years ago by the U.S. Department of Justice that sudden, unexplained in-custody deaths can occur after a person is positioned in a way that interferes with breathing.

A county medical examiner determined Pilici died due to a combination of struggling with police, being restrained on his stomach with his hands handcuffed behind his back and other medical conditions. He tested negative for illegal drugs and was taking antipsychotic medications.

An independent autopsy concluded that delayed effects of “restraint asphyxia with compression of (the) chest and injuries of the neck” caused his death, records show.

The civil lawsuit comes on the heels of a decision by the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office not to criminally charge anyone for Pilici’s death.

District Attorney Sherry Boston met with Pilici’s family and their lawyers on Dec. 17 to watch body camera footage and review other evidence, a spokesperson said in a written statement.

“Our staff advised them that after a thorough investigation by the GBI and our office that based on the evidence and the law, we would not be pursuing any criminal charges and closed the matter,” the spokesperson said.

The Pilici family has struggled to cope with Arben’s death during the past two years.

“Losing Arben wasn’t just losing a family member, it was losing laughter at family gatherings, stories he told and a presence that made everything feel a little better. Even now our family still grieves the loss of Arben,” Jashari said.