Tennessee household’s lawsuit says video lengthy saved from them reveals police power, not medicine, killed son

A mom whose son was having a seizure in his Tennessee residence mentioned in a federal lawsuit that police and paramedics subjected the 23-year-old to “inhumane acts of violence” as an alternative of treating him, then lined up their use of lethal power.

The demise of Austin Hunter Turner was one of more than 1,000 nationally that an investigation led by The Related Press recognized as occurring after cops used bodily power or weapons that had been presupposed to cease, however not kill, individuals.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court docket, got here after AP reporters shared police body-camera video they had unearthed with Turner’s mother and father, who didn’t comprehend it existed. That footage made the household doubt the official conclusion {that a} drug overdose killed their son.

Citing the AP’s reporting and lots of the particulars it disclosed, the lawsuit targeted on how officers’ personal video contradicted the police model of what occurred inside Turner’s small residence within the northeastern Tennessee metropolis of Bristol.

The officers had mentioned they bodily restrained Turner and shocked him with a Taser as a result of he was preventing paramedics who had been attempting to assist him.

The lawsuit mentioned that Turner was “handled as a suspect and never a affected person dealing with a medical emergency” from the second officers arrived. “Turner was not resisting arrest or being combative. He was not disobeying instructions; he was having a seizure.”

A number of messages left for Bristol Police Chief Matt Austin, Hearth Chief Michael Service and Mayor Vince Turner weren’t returned Thursday and Friday. The lawsuit accuses the town and a number of other cops and firefighters of violating Turner’s civil rights.

For Turner’s mom, Karen Goodwin, the lawsuit is a final probability at justice for a son everybody knew as Hunter. Since that evening in August 2017, she and her husband, Brian, believed police and blamed their son for his personal demise. Now she needs those that had been there to be held accountable. They need to have acknowledged that her son was having a medical emergency, she mentioned, and he or she’s offended as a result of she believes they lied.

“We’ve all the time trusted the police,” Goodwin mentioned. “We didn’t query authority, so after they advised us he died of a drug overdose, we believed them.”

The case highlighted a central finding of the AP-led investigation: A scarcity of accountability permeates the justice system within the aftermath of deadly police encounters that do not contain shootings. From the patrol officers on the scene and their commanders to prosecutors and medical experts, the system shields officers from scrutiny. Another deaths the investigation documented replicate one other actuality of policing in America: The fraying of the nation’s social security internet can thrust officers into violent situations with people who want psychological or substance habit therapy.

In Tennessee, it was laborious to seek out an lawyer. Goodwin mentioned she contacted 20 earlier than a Nashville regulation agency agreed to take her case. Attorneys know they’ve excessive hurdles even to get a case to trial, together with “certified immunity,” which protects officers from lawsuits.

And this case was much more difficult. Lawsuits searching for financial damages have statutes of limitations, which in circumstances like Turner’s are one 12 months in Tennessee, in keeping with Dominick Smith, one of many attorneys representing the mom. Although Turner died practically seven years in the past, Goodwin’s attorneys imagine the case concerned a cover-up. They argue which means the clock shouldn’t begin till AP reporters shared the police video with the household in August 2023, as a part of their investigation with FRONTLINE (PBS) and the Howard Facilities for Investigative Journalism on the College of Maryland and Arizona State College.

A decide will determine whether or not the lawsuit can proceed, mentioned Christopher Slobogin, director of Vanderbilt College Legislation Faculty’s Legal Justice Program.

If members of the family can present {that a} cheap particular person couldn’t have identified how an damage or demise occurred on the time, he mentioned, a decide may begin the clock after they realized the total image just below a 12 months in the past. The defendants will seemingly argue that as a result of the household has identified in regards to the demise since 2017, the statute of limitations has expired.

“You take a look at what’s truthful below the circumstances,” mentioned Slobogin, an skilled on Tennessee regulation who is just not concerned within the case.

The medical emergency started when Turner immediately collapsed in his residence. His girlfriend referred to as Goodwin and mentioned she didn’t know whether or not he was respiratory. Goodwin mentioned to name 911, then rushed over.

When she arrived, Goodwin discovered her son gasping for breath on the linoleum of his kitchen ground. She advised paramedics he had a historical past of seizures.

Not lengthy after, cops and firefighters swarmed the residence. They thought Turner was resisting, however Goodwin mentioned that wasn’t the case — his physique was jerking from the seizure.

The our bodies of officers and firefighters principally blocked the mom’s view, however she may hear them yelling at her son to cease resisting. An officer shocked him with a Taser.

The group pinned Turner face down on a recliner in what’s often known as susceptible place, which might dangerously prohibit respiratory. A couple of minutes later, he was strapped to a stretcher, once more face down. He stopped respiratory earlier than they acquired him to the Bristol Regional Medical Middle.

In his post-mortem report, the medical expert mentioned Turner died of “A number of Drug Toxicity” and cited Suboxone, a drug used to wean individuals off opioids, and the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. The medical expert additionally repeated the official police model of occasions. AP’s investigation discovered that the medical officers who decide the official reason for police restraint deaths incessantly didn’t hyperlink them to power, as an alternative blaming accidents, drug use or preexisting well being issues.

Three consultants who reviewed case information for the AP mentioned Turner didn’t die of a drug overdose. As an alternative, they mentioned the Bristol police made essential errors that contributed to Turner’s demise, together with pinning him face down.

Goodwin mentioned that, from the beginning, one thing did not appear proper about that evening. Regardless of her doubts, for years Goodwin believed first responders did every thing they may to avoid wasting her son. That modified after she watched the video.

Goodwin was shocked. It struck her that officers appeared to disregard they’d been dispatched to a medical name. By the top, as an alternative of dashing Turner away in an ambulance, police and paramedics spent six minutes recounting the violence.

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This story is a part of an ongoing investigation led by The Related Press in collaboration with the Howard Middle for Investigative Journalism applications and FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation contains the Deadly Restraint interactive story, database and the documentary “Documenting Police Use Of Force,” which premiered April 30 on PBS. ___

The Related Press receives assist from the Public Welfare Basis for reporting targeted on felony justice. This story additionally was supported by Columbia College’s Ira A. Lipman Middle for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights along side Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely chargeable for all content material. ___

Contact AP’s international investigative workforce at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/