Sheriff Apologizes To Family Of Inmate Who Yelled ‘I Can’t Breathe’ More Than 20 TIMES And Died
On Wednesday, bodycam videos of an incident that happened last year at a North Carolina jail were released. It showed the heartbreaking moments that led to the death of John Neville, who was restrained while having a medical emergency.
Neville was being held in the Forsyth County Jail in December after police arrested him on an assault warrant. While there, he suffered an “unknown medical condition” in his sleep on Dec. 2, Forsyth County district attorney, Jim O’Neill said. According to USA Today, Neville fell from the top bunk onto the floor of his cell where detention officers and a nurse found him “disoriented and confused.” The videos released Wednesday show a nurse explaining to him that he had a seizure.
As he starts to move and ask for help, officers hold his body down and tell him he’s OK and can then be heard saying “don’t fight.” At some point, a white hood is placed over Neville’s head while he is handcuffed and strapped to a chair and taken to another cell. Once inside the cell, the second video shows Neville being held face down by several officers as they struggle to remove his handcuffs. From there, several officers can be seen on the ground with Neville as they try to take his cuffs off. Neville repeatedly pleads for help saying, “I can’t breathe.” “You’re breathing, because you’re talking, and you’re yelling and you’re moving,” the deputy replies as Neville yells that he can’t breathe. “You need to stop. You need to relax. Quit resisting us,” he says.
According to the Daily Mail, he yelled “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times. As Neville goes quiet, the officers calls for cutters to remove the handcuffs. However, it didn’t work. “He’s not looking fine,” one officer says.
A nurse returns and examines Neville and she says, “I can’t hear a heart rate.” She performs CPR on Neville and the video ends there. Sadly, Neville died of a brain injury that was caused by asphyxiation on Dec. 4 at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
Just last month, five detention officers and a nurse were charged with involuntary manslaughter: detention officers Sarah E. Poole, Antonio M. Woodley, and Christopher Stamper; Corp. Edward J. Roussel and Sgt. Lavette M. Williams; and nurse Michelle Heughins, USA Today notes.
Earlier this week, Sheriff Bobby F. Kimbrough Jr. apologized to the family and said he was saddened by the videos:
“I apologize again for what took place on that day, apologize to you and your family,” Kimbrough told Neville’s son Sean and his family’s lawyer, Michael Grace. “Your father has changed the way health care will be dispensed at the Forsyth County Detention Center as well as how it will be dispensed throughout this region.”
Neville was just 56 years old.
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