WASHINGTON (AP) — One Cuban immigrant dies in Texas. Immigration detention facility There was an altercation with a security guard earlier this month, and the local coroner suggested his death would likely be classified as a homicide.

The federal government offered a different explanation for Gerardo Lunas Campos’ death on January 3, saying the detainee had attempted suicide and that officials had tried to save him.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that Lunas Campos died after being handcuffed, tackled by a security guard and strangled until he lost consciousness. The immigrant’s family was told Wednesday by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office that a preliminary autopsy report said the death was a homicide due to asphyxia due to chest and neck compression, according to a recording of the call reviewed by The Associated Press.

The deaths and contradictory accounts have led to increased scrutiny of immigration prison conditions as the government rounds up large numbers of migrants across the country and holds them in facilities like the one in El Paso where Lunas Campos died.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is legally required to publicize detainee deaths. Last week, the newspaper announced that Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four and registered sex offender, had died at Camp East, Montana, but did not mention that he had been involved in an argument with staff members shortly before his death.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, revised its explanation for Lunas Campos’ death Thursday, saying he attempted suicide.

“Mr. Campos violently resisted the officers and continued to attempt to take his life,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “During the ensuing struggle, Mr. Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”

In an interview before DHS updated its report, detainee Santos Jesús Flores, 47, from El Salvador, said he witnessed the incident through the window of his cell in the special housing unit, where detainees are isolated for disciplinary violations.

“He didn’t want to go into the cell he was going to be kept in,” Flores told The Associated Press in Spanish Thursday from a phone inside the facility. “The last thing he said was he couldn’t breathe.”

Some of the first people sent to Camp Montana East were

Camp Montana East is a vast tent facility hastily constructed in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base. The Associated Press reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility, expected to be the largest detention facility in the United States, was built and operated by a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home. Located in Richmond, Virginia. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no previous experience operating correctional facilities.

It was not immediately clear whether the security guard present when Lunas Campos died was a government employee or a private contractor. Acquisition Logistics executives did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.

Lunas Campos was one of the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East, where she had lived for more than 20 years, arriving in September after being arrested by ICE in Rochester, New York. He was legally allowed to enter the United States in 1996 and became part of a wave of Cuban immigrants trying to reach Florida by boat.

ICE said he was taken into custody in July as part of a scheduled immigration crackdown because he was eligible for deportation following a criminal conviction.

According to New York court records, Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact with a person under the age of 11, sentenced to one year in prison as a felon, and placed on the state’s sex offender registry.

Lunas Campos was also convicted in 2009 of attempting to sell a controlled substance and sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, according to New York corrections records. He completed his sentence in January 2017.

Lunas Campos’ adult daughter said the child sexual abuse accusations were false made as part of a controversial custody battle.

“My father was not a child abuser. He was a good father. He was a human being,” said Callie Lunas, 25.

competing accounts

According to ICE, on the day of her death, Lunas Campos became disruptive while waiting in line to get her medication and refused to return to her assigned dormitory. He was then taken to an isolation block.

“While in isolation, staff observed him in distress and requested assistance from on-site health care workers,” the agency said in a Jan. 9 statement. “Medical staff responded, initiated life-saving measures, and requested emergency medical services.”

Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.

Flores said the explanation omitted important details. Lunas Campos was already handcuffed when at least five guards pinned him to the floor and at least one put his arm around the detainee’s neck, police said.

Within about five minutes, Lunas Campos stopped moving, Flores said.

“After he stopped breathing, they removed the handcuffs,” Flores said.

Flores said he does not have a lawyer and has already agreed to be deported to his home country. Flores acknowledged that she was taking a risk by speaking to The Associated Press, but said she wanted to emphasize that “security guards frequently mistreat people here.”

He said multiple detainees in the unit witnessed the altercation and that surveillance cameras there would have captured the incident. Flores also said investigators have not interviewed him.

DHS did not respond to questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed when he allegedly attempted suicide or how exactly he attempted suicide.

“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all people in its custody,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation and further details will be released in the future.”

DHS has not said whether other agencies are investigating. The El Paso Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Thursday that it had performed an autopsy, but declined further comment.

The medical examiner’s final determination of homicide is usually important in determining whether the guard will be held criminally or civilly liable. If such a death is determined to be something other than an accident or homicide, a criminal investigation is less likely to be triggered, but a civil wrongful death lawsuit will be more difficult to prove.

The fact that Lunas Campos died on an Army base could also limit the legal investigative powers of state and local authorities. A spokesperson for the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Thursday on whether it was involved in the investigation.

Deaths after officers restrain inmates and other detainees by placing them face down and compressing their backs and necks have been a problem in law enforcement for decades. 2024 AP Survey recorded hundreds of deaths When encountered by police, people were restrained in a prone position. Many said “I can’t breathe” before being suffocated, according to numerous body cameras and bystander videos. Authorities often try to shift the blame for these deaths to pre-existing medical conditions or drug use.

Dr. Victor Wien, a forensic pathologist who studies prone restraint deaths, said the preliminary autopsy verdict of murder shows the guards’ actions caused Lunas Campos’ death, but doesn’t mean they intended to kill. He said the coroner’s office could be under pressure to stop short of a homicide, but would likely “stay the course.”

“This probably would have passed the ‘but’ test. Had there been a ‘but’ for the officer’s actions, he wouldn’t have died. To us, that’s generally murder,” he said.

“All I want is justice and for his body to be here.”

Janet Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos’ two youngest children, said she received a call from the medical examiner’s office the day after Campos died, informing her that his body was in the county morgue. She immediately called ICE to find out what happened.

Pagan Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said she eventually got a call back from the assistant director of the El Paso ICE field office. She said officials told her the cause of death was still under investigation and they were awaiting the results of a toxicology report. He also told them that the only way Lunas Campos’ body could be returned to Rochester free of charge was if she agreed to be cremated.

Pagan-Lopez refused and is now asking family and friends for help to send the body home and pay for the funeral.

Pagan-Lopez did not receive details from ICE about the circumstances of the death, but said a detainee at Camp Montana East called her and contacted Flores, who told her for the first time about the altercation with the guard.

Since then, she said she has repeatedly called ICE but received no response. Pagan Lopez, a U.S. citizen, also said she called the FBI twice, and agents took information from her before hanging up.

Pagan-Lopez said she and Lunas Campos were together for about 15 years before breaking up eight years ago. She described him as an attentive father who worked a minimum wage job at a furniture store until he was taken into custody, the only job he could find because of his criminal history.

She said that during her last phone call with her family the week after Christmas, Lunas Campos told her children that she planned to be deported to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island so he could be a part of their lives.

“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Pagan Lopez said. “All I want is justice and for his body to be here. That’s all I want.”

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Mr. Attanasio reported from Seattle and Mr. Foley from Iowa City.

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Contact The Associated Press’ global investigative team. [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/.