The family of a Baltimore man who died in police custody in June intends to sue the people responsible for his death, lawyers representing the family said Tuesday.

Dontae Melton Jr. died the morning of June 25 after he approached an officer the evening of June 24 and asked for help, indicating he had an emergency. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.

Attorney Larry Greenberg, who is representing the family, called Melton’s death “needless.” Greenberg said legal action would come after the Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s Independent Investigation Division report.

“Instead of compassion, the Baltimore City Police Department restrained him, arrested him, mocked him, abused him and left him to die on the street that night,” Greenberg said at a news conference Tuesday. “Officers stood around joking while he laid on the ground like trash as his life slipped away.”

Body camera footage of the incident, released by investigators, shows Melton’s breathing slowing and him falling unconscious after police cuffed his arms and shackled his legs.

Medics were called, but never responded to the scene. Eventually, officers moved Melton into a police cruiser and drove him to a nearby hospital.

Baltimore Police spokesperson Lindsey Eldridge said the department does not comment on pending litigation and that they have not reviewed Melton’s autopsy report.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did the local Fraternal Order of Police union.

A police sergeant, Joshua Jackson, initially resisted putting Melton in a police cruiser and taking him to the hospital, saying it was “all about optics,” in the released camera footage. Jackson said there was no way to secure Melton in the car.

But around 10:25 p.m., Jackson made the call for officers to transport the 31-year-old man in a police vehicle.

Officers arrived at Grace Medical Center on West Baltimore Street within two minutes. Melton died there around 3 a.m.

“I’d far rather have the optics of putting a living person in a car and taking them to a hospital than the optics of having a person dead hours later,” Greenberg said at the Tuesday press conference.

Melton’s death was a part of a series of Baltimore Police-involved deaths on the city’s West Side in June.

A week earlier, officers fatally shot Bilal Abdullah, 36, after he fired at police. Police said they were pursuing him for allegedly waving a weapon and threatening people near Pennsylvania Avenue earlier that day.

Hours after Melton died, 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks was fatally shot by police in her home in Mosher. Officers were called there for a wellness check and, after being denied entry, breached her door, bodycam footage shows. Brooks charged at officers with a knife and was first shocked with a Taser, then shot.