Weekly News Round-up 7/28/25

KPRC: Family of man who refused to leave Harris County Jail wants deputies charged in his death

CW: Violence described below. The linked articles include video footage and descriptions of extreme violence. Not appropriate for children. Read and watch using your own discretion.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office released graphic footage of the death of Alexis Jovany Cardenas, showing excessive use of force after he was released from jail. The article describes, “several detention officers ultimately pinned him down for about eight minutes, at which point they realized he was unresponsive.” The Sheriff’s Office held a press conference and publicly released a video that Cardenas’ family wrote, “stripped [Alexis] of his dignity even in death.”

Houston Chronicle also reported on this story, where Alexis’s cousin, Melissa is quoted, saying, “Everybody is going to work, and my cousin’s buried.”

Read the statement from Cardenas’s family below:

“We are absolutely devastated by the actions of HCSO leadership today. HCSO never informed us or asked us for permission to release this horrific video of Alexis’ murder at the hands of HCSO staff. We feel that Alexis has been stripped off his dignity even in death. He did not deserve this, and his family and young children do not deserve this. We find HCSO’s decision deeply deplorable and unforgivable.

“We condemn HCSO’s actions in the strongest terms possible. Especially the actions of deputies who escalated the situation right from the get-go instead of de-escalating. We did not see Alexis fighting. We saw him asking for help followed by the deputies escalating the situation.

“In fact, the only person who was trying to de-escalate the situation was Alexis. It seemed like his phone was dead and he was asking for help because he was being released so late at night in violation of state law and local policy that mandates that detainees shall not be released between 9 pm and 6 am. How was he going to call his family? How was he going to get home?

“Everything we saw in the video contradicted all the statements we had heard from HCSO until today starting with “Alexis suffered a medical emergency upon release from Harris County,” “he collapsed upon exiting the facility,” “he reached for the taser,” and “CPR and lifesaving attempts were conducted immediately.” All of these statements have proven to be false by the video.

“Right from the beginning, every single system that was supposed to ensure his safety, failed him. Starting with the HPD officers who arrested him after he stopped them to ask for help during a mental health crisis.

“Then the jail’s medical and mental health screening failed him during intake and during the approximately 30 hours he was incarcerated. The Sheriff has publicly claimed that people brought in in mental health crises with non-violent misdemeanors are diverted from jail. Alexis had the lowest level charge possible and yet he was not diverted.

“It’s clear that Alexis was asking for some sort of help during release, but instead of helping him officers decided to use force and dehumanize him.

“We saw an excessive and unnecessary use of prolonged force, especially after leg restraints were put on him. There was no need to apply so much force on his neck and back for so long after he had clearly stopped moving and breathing. You can clearly see the deep marks left on his neck and back from the pressure applied by the two deputies for at least 5- 7 mins.

“We cannot understand why no medical personnel were called immediately to provide acute care. We never saw a nurse or an EMT. Just an overwhelming number of deputies even after he had stopped moving. Use of body cameras have been sold to the community as a tool for transparency and accountability, but the bodycams were not even turned on for most of the incident. And when one was turned on, it was completely useless. We cannot trust anything that Sheriff Gonzalez said today during the press conference because he blatantly lied about something as simple as having called two family members on the day that Alexis was killed. He left one voicemail on Alexis’ 12 year old daughter’s cellphone. That’s all!

“If he can prevaricate about something so insignificant, it’s impossible to believe anything else he claims. We demand the following:

• All the footage including every single bodycam be released to us, not the public, including the audio from the wall camera
• Every single deputy and staff member who was involved in the incident be terminated
• The DA bring charges against the deputies involved including the ranking officer who allowed escalation and did not render life-saving assistance
• Release paperwork from intake screening documentation, health records and jail release
• All the mental health and medical screening and care policies be immediately reviewed and changed to prevent such incidents
• Immediate release of ME’s report and autopsy findings

In conclusion, not only are our hearts broken but we will never be able to trust law enforcement again. Actions like the ones we saw in the video and the ones that led to Alexis’ arrest are the reason why people’s faith in law enforcement has eroded. Every single system and system actor that was supposed to protect him, failed him. And failed his children.”

Full Article at KPRC