A family plans to sue Baltimore Police after the death of Dontae Melton Jr., a man who died while in police custody in June, their attorney said Tuesday. 

The update comes nearly a week after the Maryland Attorney General's Office released body-worn camera footage of the interaction between 31-year-old Melton and Baltimore police on June 24. 

Melton's death has been ruled a homicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. 

Attorney Larry Greenberg with Greenberg Law Offices said the lawsuit would be filed after the Attorney General's Independent Investigations Division (IID) completes its investigation. 

"At some point, this behavior needs to stop," Greenberg said. "The training needs to occur where they treat people like humans."

On Tuesday morning, police said they had not received an autopsy report and the investigation is ongoing. 

Baltimore Police said they do not comment on pending litigation. 

Baltimore police custody death 

According to the IID's preliminary investigation and body-cam footage from police, Melton approached an officer who was stopped at a red light in an intersection. 

The officer determined that Melton was suffering from a mental health crisis, and he was ultimately detained as officers awaited assistance from medical personnel. However, medics did not arrive due to the city's dispatch system being down. 

Officers eventually drove Melton to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead hours later. 

Greenberg Law Offices claimed in a statement that Melton was suffering from a mental health crisis when he sought help from police. The law firm alleged that instead of getting the care he needed, Melton was met with police force. 

"He was a 31-year-old man in the midst of a mental health crisis, begging for police to help. But instead of compassion, Baltimore City Police officers restrained him, arrested him, knocked him, abused him, and left him to die on the street that night," Greenberg said during a news conference Tuesday. 

Greenberg went on to criticize the long wait for medics, saying, "When police finally called for a medic, EMS never came. 50 minutes. They never came. Officers stood around joking while he laid on the ground like trash as his life slipped away."

After Melton's death, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott confirmed that the city's Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system was down at the time due to the heat. This meant that police and fire officials were unable to communicate. 

Due to the system outage, medics were never sent to the scene. 

"The mayor and the Baltimore Police Department have tried to point fingers at each other and the Computer-Aided Dispatch system, and saying it was broken," Greenberg said. "But let's be clear—it is no excuse. Either there was no backup plan in place for when the technology failed, or the officers chose not to follow it. Both are unacceptable, and both contributed to Dontae's death."

Body cam video released 

The body camera footage showed Melton approaching Baltimore Police Officer Gerard Pettiford shortly before 9:40 p.m. at the intersection of West Franklin Street and North Franklintown Road.

Melton was pleading for help and told police he believed someone was chasing him, the video showed. Officer Pettiford radioed that Melton appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis. 

Officer Pettiford warned Melton to stay out of the busy intersection and eventually restrained him. 

At one point, Melton yelled, "Bro, he's going to shoot me." Officers attempted to reassure him that they were not trying to harm him.

While waiting for the medical unit, Melton screamed, "I can't breathe, yo. I can't breathe." 

Officers noted that his pulse was elevated, and then he suddenly went quiet. One officer remarked that Melton had gone "completely deadweight."

Around 10:02 p.m., officers poured water on Melton, questioned why the medics still had not yet arrived, and debated the safety of transporting Melton to the hospital in the police car.

Eventually, officers decided they could no longer wait for medical assistance and drove Melton to Grace Medical Center, where he later died.

According to Greenberg, the body cam footage had a gap between when Melton left the scene and when he arrived at the hospital, which was less than five minutes away. 

"If you all looked at the records, it was a 30-minute gap from when he left and when he arrived," Greenberg said. "The truth will come out. We will find out what happened."

He previously claimed that parts of the six-hour body cam video had been redacted and edited.