Death in Custody of the Dallas Police?

There has been another death while in custody of the police. While the body cam shows the police did not actively harm him, is being put in hand cuffs part of the risk? Is there more that could be done to save these lives- perhaps not having police come to get them, but medical professionals instead?

The most recent death, Steven Keith Jarrell Jr., had not broken any laws, but his family was worried for him and called police. This is part of defunding the police- handcuffing innocent people to go to the hospital is not safe.

The right people need to be called at the right time to save lives. Justice Now!

Dallas police have released body camera footage that shows officers’ interactions with a man who died in their custody after they were called to his home during an apparent mental health crisis.

Steven Keith Jarrell Jr., 35, was the sixth person to die in Dallas police custody in 2020, Maj. Danny Williams said in a video the department released Saturday. Jarrell died Tuesday after he fell unconscious while officers were taking him to a behavioral health hospital, police said.

Officers had been called about 12:30 a.m. to the 2000 block of Prichard Lane, near Bruton Road and Loop 12, in Pleasant Grove. When they arrived, Jarrell’s mother told them he suffered from mental illness, including schizophrenia, and had missed doses of prescribed medicine, Williams said.

His mother didn’t comment on the case Sunday but indicated in a Facebook message that she would talk after her son’s funeral this week.

She wrote last week on Facebook that her heart went out to law enforcement officers after she witnessed how they “tried to save her son’s life.”

Jarrell died at 1:50 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Dallas County medical examiner’s office. A determination on his cause of death is pending.

Police released more than 50 minutes of body camera footage of officers’ interactions with Jarrell before his death. The video was reviewed by Jarrell’s family and Tonya McClary, who leads the Office of Community Police Oversight, before it was released to the public.

At the beginning of the video, Jarrell’s mother tells an officer her son is in a “psychotic state of mind,” isn’t aware of what’s going on around him and says he feels as though he’s falling. She adds that he’s nonviolent.

She says he needs to be taken to Medical City Green Oaks Hospital, a behavioral hospital in North Dallas, and lists the medicines he takes.

The officers ask Jarrell’s mother whether he’s willing to get in the car and go to the hospital with her, rather than get in the back of their squad car in handcuffs.

“We’re trying to avoid upsetting him further than he already is, so we don’t want to come in and seem overly aggressive — and we don’t want to set him off,” one officer can be heard saying on the video. “Our main question is this — if we go in and say, ‘Hey, buddy, can you come with us’ — is he going to act out?”

Jarrell’s mother says she doesn’t think so, and the officers go inside the home with her. The video shows the officers helping Jarrell walk to a bed and get dressed.

Paramedics also enter the house to check on Jarrell, and he is handcuffed by officers.

Police said in a written statement later that Jarrell had been medically cleared by Dallas Fire-Rescue personnel at the scene.

At one point while he was sitting on the bed, Jarrell appears to get upset over the handcuffs and tells his mother he’s panicked.

“They have to do that for you to get in the police car. It’s for your protection and theirs,” she tells him. “They’re taking you to Green Oaks, and you’ll be fine.”

Officers walk him to the squad car to drive him to Green Oaks. Once he’s inside, his mother walks up to the window to talk to him.

“I love you,” she tells him.

“I can’t breathe,” he says.

Inside the car, Jarrell repeats to an officer that he can’t breathe, and the officer says he’ll crack a window for him. Jarrell asks for something to drink, and his mother tells him he’ll be able to get something to drink at Green Oaks.

An officer tells Jarrell the drive to Green Oaks is about 18 minutes, and the next several minutes of the video is quiet as the officer drives to the hospital. At one point, he calls back to Jarrell, asking if he’s OK. No response from Jarrell can be heard on the video.

When the officers arrive at Green Oaks, they notice Jarrell isn’t moving. One officer shines a flashlight on the man’s face, and his eyes are open, his head slumped to one side.

They get him out of the car, noticing that he’s not breathing, and one officer calls for an ambulance. They take off Jarrell’s handcuffs and start chest compressions on him.

At one point, the officers decide it may be faster to drive Jarrell to the hospital themselves, so they turn on their sirens and drive to nearby Medical City Hospital. When they arrive, one officer runs in the building.

“We need some help out here!” he shouts, and medical staff members rush out to put Jarrell on a gurney as they continue chest compressions on him and place what appears to be an oxygen mask over his face.

The video ends as the medical staff wheels Jarrell down a hallway inside the hospital.

Dallas police released the body camera video in accordance with a policy put in place in June that says the department will release video of critical incidents, including deaths in custody, within 72 hours.

Following are details that were available Sunday for four of the five other cases of people who died in 2020 while in the custody of Dallas police:

• Emerson DeJesus Perozo, 32, died of a drug overdose after he was taken into custody March 17, a custodial death report says. Officers responded to a hotel in the 13000 block of North Central Expressway on March 17 to deal with a naked, screaming person. Perozo was placed in custody and taken to a hospital. He died March 18, according to an autopsy report.

• Tony Dewright Payne, 28, was found lying in the middle of a street April 11, according to a custodial death report. Officers stopped to render aid and noticed Payne was in “medical distress,” the report says. Payne was “kicking and flailing” while he was on the ground, the report says, and officers handcuffed him until an ambulance arrived. Payne was taken to a hospital and died April 16. The cause of death has not been determined.

• Gamaliel Sanchez, 23, died after exchanging gunfire with a Dallas officer in May, police said. Sanchez had been wanted on two felony warrants when officers tried to arrest him May 16 in the 2100 block of South Westmoreland Road, police said. He fled in a pickup and crashed into another vehicle. Sanchez got out of the truck and exchanged gunfire with two officers, police said. One officer was wounded in the hand, and Sanchez escaped. He was found in a back yard and taken to a hospital, where he later died. Police said the cause of death was suicide.

• Andre Leshon Lee, 42, lost consciousness and later died, police said. He was taken into custody Aug. 28 after he had broken into a home, threatened the homeowner and barricaded himself, police said. Body camera footage shows police persuaded Lee to come out of the room. When he did, he was handcuffed and taken outside, where he lost consciousness. He was allegedly under the influence of cocaine. He was taken to a hospital and died Sept. 2.

Staff writer Nataly Keomoungkhoun contributed to this report. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/12/06/dallas-police-release-bodycam-video-after-35-year-old-man-dies-in-officers-custody/?fbclid=IwAR1-ojXgXz9tAIoKX1JPenFlmuYa1ytaFX8C5OaJk6_xa4GPWi8J8PKYpGA