An independent report has revealed gruesome new details in the death of a Black woman who fell out of a moving police car in Georgia.
Brianna Marie Grier, 28, was handcuffed in front of her body and not wearing a seatbelt when she fell out of the patrol car, GBI concluded after reviewing numerous interviews, body camera videos, and conducting exhaustive mechanical tests last month.
Hancock County Sheriff deputies Timothy Legette and Marlin Primus, the sheriff’s brother, arrested Ms Grier after her family called 911 when she experienced a mental health crisis, The Daily Beast reported. She died six days later at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta after the 15 July arrest.
On Monday, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and director of forensic services at the University of Michigan Dr Allecia Wilson held a press conference to discuss the findings of an independent review of Ms Grier’s medical records.
Dr Wilson, who also conducted a preliminary autopsy on George Floyd back in 2020, said that Ms Grier had sustained two fractures on the left side of her skull, and several hematomas and hemorrhages consistent with blunt force trauma. At one point, Dr Wilson said, Ms Grier’s brain was so swollen that it moved from one side of her skull to the other.
An official cause and manner of death have yet to be released pending autopsy results by GBI. Mr Crump called on Monday for the bureau to expeditiously release preliminary findings.
He also claimed that deputies let Ms Grier fall at least twice on the concrete before she was put inside the car, and demanded that all the bodycam footage recorded during the arrest be released.
Video released by GBI last week from a deputy’s body camera shows Brianna on the floor and clearly in distress. Officers threatened to tase her before she made threats to harm herself.
‘I’m not drunk. I haven’t had anything to drink. Bring out your breathalizer,” Ms Grier can be heard saying on video.
Ms Grier’s parents, who also spoke during the conference, said they had sought help from first responders in the past when she was having a mental health crisis, and an ambulance always transported her to the hospital. It is unclear why an ambulance did not answer along with police to the 15 July incident.
“My grandbabies ask me every day where is their mama ... That’s why we are here. We’re trying to get answers so we can tell them what happened to their mama. So they can understand ... so this doesn’t happen [any]more to any other young lady, to any parent,’ Marvin Grier said as he clutched a picture of his late daughter.
GBI said that Ms Grier was being transported to be held overnight before receiving medical treatment the next morning.
“The story keeps changing. At first, [Ms Grier’s parents] were told that their 110-pound daughter had super strength and someone kicked a door open ... they then tried to assassinate her character and said she jumped out of the car ... then GBI said they never closed the passenger rear door,” Mr Crump claimed during the press conference on Monday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations confirmed on 29 July that Hancock County deputies failed to close the passenger’s rear door near where Ms Grier was sitting.
The report also noted that “deputies thought he closed the rear passenger side door,” and that they reportedly had no other contact with Ms Grier from the time she was placed in the car until she fell out of the moving vehicle.
