The family of Arben Pilici has filed a lawsuit against DeKalb County after he suffocated in the back of a police car during a February 2024 welfare check at his home.
His family says Pilici, 49, had long lived with mental illness and was due for a routine doctor’s appointment to update his prescriptions. Pilici refused to go, ultimately leading to a visit by DeKalb County’s Mobile Crisis Unit, which pairs police officers with a counselor trained in deescalating behavioral and mental health crises. Two officers and a counselor are also named as defendants in court filings.
After counselor Lisa Guest ordered Pilici to be involuntarily committed, the legal complaint alleges officer Jason Daniels pinned Pilici to the ground for about eight minutes. Then, Daniels and officer Keith Byrd placed Pilici face-down and hand-cuffed in the back of a police car.
The DeKalb County Police Department declined to comment for this story due to pending litigation.
Body camera footage shows officers and the counselor laughing and discussing unrelated topics for at least 15 minutes without checking on Pilici’s condition. Attorneys for Pilici’s family say one of their biggest concerns is the lack of policy that allowed this type of restraint to occur.
