This is a shame.
On April 15, 39-year-old John Scott Jr., known to his friends and loved ones as “LJ,” was taken into custody by Decatur, Alabama, police officers who were responding to a call placed by Scott’s mother, who said her son was experiencing a”mental health crisis.”
A week later, on April 22, Scott died at a hospital he was taken to from what cops reportedly described as some kind of medical emergency. Now, footage taken from the day of Scott’s arrest has been released, and it shows police officers dragging the father of five across the floor of a police station by his feet. Officers had reportedly tased Scott during his arrest, which, again, began with his mother reporting a mental health emergency.
From TMZ:
Police reportedly arrived at an apartment complex on April 15, where they say they found Scott “sweating heavily and exhibiting erratic behavior.”
Officers were responding to a 911 call from Scott’s mother, who reported he was experiencing a “mental health crisis,” according to NBC News. Body cam footage shows cops unsuccessfully attempting to coax Scott into an ambulance before they say he became “combative” … leading to his arrest.
The footage shows the officers eventually wrestle him to the ground — with the help of a Taser — and haul him off to Morgan County Jail … where video from inside the station appears to show Scott lying on the ground, surrounded by cops. Decatur Police tell TMZ Scott “was arrested on an outstanding Morgan County Failure to Appear warrant.”
To be clear, according to NBC, what the police claim is that they responded to a 911 call placed by Scott’s mother, “who requested assistance due to a mental health crisis involving her son,” and that they spent close to an hour “engaging with Scott before clearing the scene without incident,” meaning that’s not when the arrest took place. The department said that, later that same day, at 8:15 p.m., officers were dispatched to a disturbance call at Brookridge Apartments, where they found Scott, “who was observed in the parking lot, sweating heavily and exhibiting erratic behavior.” The officers said they requested medical assistance and, at some point, they were informed about the bench warrant for Scott.
From NBC:
Body camera footage released April 18 shows that officers spent about 20 minutes trying to get Scott to enter the ambulance.
At the start of the footage, Scott was seen sweating excessively and wiping his face with his shirt. He was articulate and was seen shaking hands with officers, trying to make light conversation and jokes. Officers repeatedly encouraged him to enter the ambulance, or else they’d have to arrest him and take him to jail on the warrant.
Scott later appeared nervous, asking to take a moment and a few breaths. He is seen on the footage staying near the ambulance door, but he was hesitant to enter.
So, the officers saw the man who was clearly in distress being hesitant to enter an ambulance, and, after about 20 minutes, they told him he was under arrest and ordered him to turn around. Decatur police said in a statement that Scott “became combative” when they moved to arrest him. At least four officers can be seen struggling with Scott as he began to yell and scream. NBC noted that, in the bodycam footage, a taser can be heard being deployed several times as officers repeatedly order him to turn onto his stomach. That’s when Scott can be heard saying those now-infamous words associated with Black police brutality victims that ended up dead: “I can’t breathe!“
While Scott was frantically telling officers he couldn’t breathe, the officers were commanding him to let go of their legs. Eventually, they got him handcuffed and instructed him to get up, but he appeared to be unable to get up, so officers pulled him up off the ground.
“Due to his significant physical size and strength, officers were forced to employ measures in response to his resistance (including Taser deployments) with multiple unsuccessful attempts to gain control,” police said in a statement.
As for Scott’s death, the department appears to be running with a similar narrative to what was used to justify the death of George Floyd, saying his arrest came after “a series of incidents likely linked to both medical and mental health struggles compounded by suspected drug-induced psychosis.” (They will always mention it if there’s even a suspicion that the victim was on drugs.)
Scott’s family, who hired famed civil attorney S. Lee Merritt to represent them, “maintained the issue was purely a mental health episode and say cops should’ve handled the situation differently,” TMZ reported. Merritt and the family argue that Scott wasn’t resisting arrest when cops were dragging his body across the floor, and that they believe he was unresponsive and possibly unconscious at the time. Merritt described the act as a “violation of LJ’s constitutional and human rights.”
The Decatur Police Department said in a statement that the investigation into Scott’s death is ongoing and is being conducted by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
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