Brianna Grier, 28, was going by means of a bout of psychological well being on July 15 when her mom referred to as the police for assist with the case, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump stated at a press convention on Friday.
Crump, who represents the Grier household, stated Grier had a historical past of psychological well being crises and the household had referred to as the police a number of occasions prior to now.
“After they got here to the home, they might name an ambulance service,” Grier’s father, Marvin Grier, stated. “The ambulance service was popping out and so they had been taking him to the hospital for assist.”
“However this time they solely referred to as the police, and the police did not deliver the ambulance with them, regardless that Mrs. Mary (Brianna’s mom) clearly said that she was having an episode,” Crump defined. .
Crump stated Hancock County sheriff’s deputies entered the home, handcuffed Grier and put her at the back of a patrol automotive to take her into custody for allegedly resisting arrest .
In physique digital camera video launched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Grier asks deputies to provide her a breathalyzer and repeatedly tells officers that she shouldn’t be drunk. In line with a timestamp on the video, Grier was positioned within the patrol automotive shortly earlier than 1 a.m. on July 15.
Grier then yells on the officers saying she is going to hold herself if positioned within the automotive. They proceed to handcuff her and try to put her in a police cruiser, however when she resists additional, an officer is seen drawing his taser.
When Grier sees this, she yells on the officers saying they will taser her and he or she would not care. The officer responds by saying he is not going to taser her.
The video reveals the officer stowing the Taser after which strolling away from the motive force’s facet rear door. When the officer returns, he’s seen lifting Grier off the bottom and placing her within the again seat of the patrol automotive.
Physique digital camera video doesn’t present whether or not officers opened, closed or had any interplay with the rear passenger facet door, however one officer is heard asking one other officer if the door is closed.
GBI investigators concluded Wednesday that “the rear passenger-side door of the patrol automotive, close to the place Grier was seated, was by no means closed,” based on a information launch.
Lower than a minute later, after officers drive away from the Grier household dwelling, the video reveals a police officer all of the sudden stopping his automobile and getting out.
As soon as out of the automotive, the officer locates Grier mendacity on the facet of the highway, face down. Grier would not reply to the officer, who pats his facet and calls out his title. The officer then radios an oncoming patrol automotive behind him that they’re going to want an ambulance.
The footage doesn’t present the second Grier falls from the automobile, however does present her mendacity face down and the again door of the passenger automotive open.
The second officer says Grier continues to be respiratory. Grier by no means responds to officers who name after she falls out of the patrol automobile. The video ends with Grier on the bottom as police await paramedics.
Crump alleges that police did not strap Grier right into a seat belt whereas she was handcuffed at the back of the police cruiser and in consequence, when the automobile started to maneuver, she fell out of the automotive, landed on her head, cracked her cranium after which fell right into a coma for six days earlier than dying from her accidents.
Investigators reviewed a number of physique digital camera movies, performed quite a few interviews and performed “mechanical exams on the patrol automotive” to find out “if there have been any mechanical malfunctions” with the automobile, the GBI assertion stated.
The GBI press launch notes that two deputies had been attempting to get her into the again of the patrol automotive after she was arrested and handcuffed.
Grier advised deputies she was going to harm herself and was on the bottom refusing to get into the patrol automotive, based on the assertion.
The GBI assertion stated the 2 deputies and Grier, who was on the bottom, “had been on the driver’s facet rear door of the patrol automotive” when “one of many deputies walked over and opened the passenger facet rear door. “. The identical deputy shortly returned to the passenger facet door, based on the GBI assertion, and the 2 deputies put Grier at the back of the patrol automotive.
Deputies closed the motive force’s facet rear door and, based on the GBI assertion, “investigation reveals the deputy believed he had closed the passenger facet rear door.”
Within the video, an officer could be seen choosing up Grier and inserting her within the automotive by means of the motive force’s facet rear door.
Off digital camera, one of many officers is heard asking if the door on the opposite facet is closed, to which the opposite officer replies sure.
Deputies left the scene of the incident and drove a brief distance earlier than Grier fell from the transferring automotive, the assertion stated.
CNN contacted the Hancock County Sheriff’s Division for remark, however didn’t instantly reply.
“I simply do not perceive why they could not put her in a seatbelt, why they violated so many insurance policies to stop one thing like this from taking place,” Crump stated.
“We beloved him regardless, unconditionally. Now we’ve got to boost these youngsters and inform them a narrative, and I do not plan on mendacity,” Marvin Greer advised reporters on Friday. “I wish to inform the reality, so it would not occur to anybody else.”
CNN’s Zenebou Syllaand and Camila Moreno-Lizarazo contributed to this report.
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