Police ‘didn’t close police car door’ before handcuffed woman fell out and died OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
A report concluded that sheriff’s officers never closed the door of a moving patrol car from which a Georgia woman fell, resulting in her death.
Brianna Marie Grier, 28, suffered serious head injuries when she fell from a moving police car during an arrest in Sparta earlier this month. She died six days after the July 15 arrest.
On Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations confirmed that the Hancock County deputies failed to close the passenger’s back door near where Mrs. Grier was sitting.
Ms Grier was handcuffed to her body and not wearing a seat belt, GBI concluded after watching numerous interviews, multiple body camera videos and conducting extensive mechanical tests on the patrol car.
“Automotive experts and the Georgia State Patrol also assisted with tests to determine if there were possible mechanical failures. In conjunction with these investigative acts, GBI officers concluded that Grier was placed in the back seat of the patrol car, handcuffed to the front of her body without a seat belt,” a GBI statement said.
Grier’s mother had called the police after her daughter went through a mental health crisis, her family said. The GBI report stated that Ms Grier refused arrest and as she lay on the floor, she is said to have stated that she would harm herself.
She was eventually placed in the car to be driven to the sheriff’s office, where she would be held overnight before receiving medical treatment the following morning.
The report also noted that “agents closed the driver-side back door… [and] that the deputy thought he had closed the passenger side door.” The officers reportedly had no other contact with Ms Grier from the time she was placed in the car until she fell from the moving vehicle.
Mrs. Grier’s family has hired famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
”What this is really about is” [Ms Grier’s twin three-year-old daughters]Maria and Mariah, who will have to grow up without their mother,” Crump said at a news conference on Friday.
At a news conference on Friday, attorney Ben Crump said Ms. Grier’s family had sought help from first responders when she had a mental health crisis, and an ambulance always took her to the hospital.
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Mr. Crump said Ms. Grier’s family had sought help from first responders in the past when she had a mental health crisis, and an ambulance always took her to the hospital.
He said that although the appeal was not about a criminal case, the deputies said they would arrest Ms Grier for resisting.
“Well, a person with a mental health crisis… you can’t hold them accountable for their actions, [especially] if they have a documented history of a mental health crisis,” Mr Crump said.
“Everyone knows that it is not possible to access a police vehicle from the back seat, especially if someone is handcuffed. Brianna’s family trusted law enforcement to get her the help she needed, and now they are being forced to mourn her completely needless death,” Mr Crump also said in a statement. The independent.