3 Detroit-area mall security guards plead not guilty to manslaughter charges in connection with man's 2014 death

DETROIT (AP) — Three security guards who pinned a man to the ground at a Detroit-area mall in 2014 were acquitted Friday of involuntary manslaughter, a case that prosecutors reopened years later.

McKenzie Cochran, who was suffering from an enlarged heart, repeatedly said, “I can't breathe” while five guards held him at Northland Center after a mall tenant alerted security about a disturbance, witnesses said.

The fight was captured on dark, grainy video from inside the mall and bystanders.

Lawyers for the security guards – John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree – said Cochran was combative and did not stop resisting when they tried to handcuff him. An expert testified they had to protect themselves and the mall.

The 25-year-old black man was handcuffed after about 10 minutes and placed against a pillar while guards waited for police and paramedics. Cochran's cause of death was asphyxiation.

The public prosecutor's office said the death was due to excessive use of force and gross negligence on the part of the security guards.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS. The previous AP story follows below.

DETROIT (AP) — A prosecutor urged jurors Friday to use “common sense” and convict three security guards of manslaughter in connection with the death of a man who said he couldn't breathe when he was pushed to the ground at a Detroit-area mall in 2014.

The jury heard closing arguments after a use-of-force expert defended the tactics used by guards at the Northland Center in response to a concerned store owner calling to report that McKenzie Cochran had said he wanted to kill someone.

“Based on the intelligence they had, this guy posed a serious threat,” said Charles Key, a former Baltimore police chief. “They're just trying to handcuff him. They're not using any force other than the initial pepper spray.”

Cochran, 25, a black man with an enlarged heart, repeatedly said “I can't breathe” while lying face down, according to witnesses. He died of heart failure and asphyxiation during the roughly 10-minute standoff, which went from involving two to five guards. The standoff was captured by a mall camera and another video that shows guards telling the unarmed man to stop resisting.

Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan said the security guards on trial – John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree – were not instructed to detain or arrest people while working in Northland.

“If a man says, 'I can't breathe,' multiple times, common sense says the defendants should have repositioned him. They did nothing,” Logan told the jury. “If the man was too weak to speak and all he was doing was moaning and screaming, common sense says the situation is serious and something needs to be done.”

“Use your common sense today,” said the prosecutor, “and find her guilty of manslaughter.”

Cochran's death was ruled an accident by the medical examiner in 2014, and the Oakland County prosecutor did not file charges, partly because of Key's opinion of the confrontation.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel reversed course in 2021 and filed charges amid nationwide outrage over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police.

Defense attorneys repeatedly reminded the jury that a decade had passed since Cochran's death.

“They had all this information 10 years ago. No charges. There was no negligence,” Wright Blake said. “So what changed between 2014 and 2021? … Is it their own political advantage?”

Blake said there was no new evidence other than the opinion of medical examiner Dr. Carl Schmidt, who reviewed the files and testified that the death was not an accident and could be considered a homicide.

Another lawyer, Jamil Khuja, said Schmidt was Nessel's “favorite killer,” but the doctor said he was unlikely to bill the state for his work.

“If someone had found a gun in this man's pocket, these men would have been celebrated as heroes,” Khuja said. “Instead, 10 years later, not a know-it-all, but a know-it-all comes along and turns their lives upside down.”

Another guard pleaded guilty last week, although he faces only 90 days in prison. The guard who led the encounter with Cochran died in 2017.

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