Georgia authorities release body camera footage after woman dies following fall from patrol car

Brianna Grier, 28, was experiencing a mental wellness episode on July 15 when her mother identified as law enforcement to aid with the issue, civil legal rights legal professional Ben Crump said at a information convention Friday.

Crump, who is symbolizing the Grier family, said Grier experienced a historical past of mental health crises and the family members experienced identified as law enforcement quite a few moments in the earlier.

“When they made use of to appear out to the home they’d simply call an ambulance service,” Grier’s father Marvin Grier stated. “The ambulance provider would appear out and they would get her to the healthcare facility to get some assist.”

“But this time they only termed the law enforcement, and the law enforcement did not convey the ambulance with them, even while, Ms. Mary (Brianna’s mother) evidently mentioned she was getting an episode,” Crump stated.

Crump explained Hancock County Sheriff’s deputies came into the residence, handcuffed Grier and positioned her in the back again of a patrol car or truck to get her into custody for allegedly resisting arrest.

In entire body camera video launched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Grier asks deputies to give her a breathalyzer exam and continuously tells officers she is not drunk. According to a time stamp on the online video, Grier was placed in the patrol car shortly before 1 a.m. on July 15.

Grier then yells to officers stating she’s heading to dangle herself if she is put in the motor vehicle. They proceed to place her in handcuffs and endeavor to put her in a squad car or truck but when she resists additional, an officer is noticed unholstering his taser.

When Grier sees this, she yells at officers saying they can tase her, and that she does not treatment. The officer replies, declaring he’s not likely to tase her.

The online video shows the officer placing the Taser away and then walking away from the rear driver’s aspect door. When the officer returns, he is seen lifting Grier off the floor and putting her in the back seat of the patrol automobile.

The body digicam video clip fails to show if officers opened, shut or had any conversation with the rear passenger aspect door, but an officer is heard asking yet another officer if the door is shut.

GBI investigators concluded Wednesday that “the rear passenger aspect door of the patrol car, in close proximity to exactly where Grier was sitting down, was never ever closed,” in accordance to a news launch.

Fewer than a minute later, following the officers generate absent from the Grier household house, the movie exhibits an officer suddenly cease his vehicle and get out.

The moment out of the automobile, the officer locates Grier laying on the side of the street, experience down. Grier isn’t going to answer to the officer, who is tapping her side and indicating her title. The officer then radios to an oncoming patrol motor vehicle that is behind him that they are going to want an ambulance.

The footage does not show the moment Grier falls out of the automobile but does present her laying face initially on the floor and the rear passenger vehicle door open up.

The next officer claims that Grier is nevertheless breathing. Grier by no means responds to the officers contacting her identify following falling out of the patrol car or truck. The online video ends with Grier on the ground even though law enforcement wait for paramedics.

Attorney Ben Crump speaks at a news conference Friday regarding the death of Brianna Grier.

Crump alleges that law enforcement didn’t safe Grier in a seatbelt while she was handcuffed in the again of the police car and as a final result, when the motor vehicle started off relocating, she by some means fell out of the auto, landed on her head, cracked her cranium and then went into a coma for 6 days prior to dying mainly because of her injuries.

Investigators reviewed a number of system digital camera movies, done a lot of interviews and executed “mechanical exams on the patrol car or truck” to decide “if there were probable mechanical malfunctions” to the car, the GBI statement reads.

The GBI news release notes that two deputies were seeking to get her into the back of the patrol car right after she was arrested and place in handcuffs.

Grier told the deputies she was heading to damage herself and was on the floor refusing to get into the patrol motor vehicle, according to the release.

The GBI assertion explained the two deputies and Grier, who was on the ground, “ended up at the rear driver’s side door of the patrol motor vehicle” when “just one of the deputies walked close to and opened the rear passenger facet door.” The exact deputy swiftly returned to the passenger side door, the GBI assertion claims, and both of those deputies place Grier into the back of the patrol auto.

Deputies closed the rear driver’s facet doorway and, according to the GBI assertion, “The investigation reveals that the deputy considered he closed the rear passenger aspect door.”

In the online video, an officer can be found finding Grier up and positioning her in the automobile by way of the driver’s facet rear doorway.

Off digital camera, a single of the officers is read inquiring if the door on the other facet is shut, to which the other officer replies certainly.

Deputies left the scene of the incident and drove a limited length before Grier fell out of the transferring automobile, according to the assertion.

CNN has attained out to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Section for remark but did not promptly hear again.

“I just will not fully grasp why they couldn’t set her in a seat belt why they violated so lots of policies to avoid nearly anything like this from occurring,” Crump mentioned.

“We liked her no matter, unconditionally. Now we bought to elevate these children and explain to them a story, and I’m not arranging on telling no lie,” Marvin Greer informed reporters Friday. “I want to convey to the truth of the matter, so it would not materialize to no person else.”

CNN’s Zenebou Syllaand and Camila Moreno-Lizarazo contributed to this report.