Sgt. James Brown checked into jail for a two-day sentence over a court fine. But even though he was supposed to have been let out once his mother paid the fine, that never happened until jail deputies had killed him.
The active-duty soldier served two tours of duty in Iraq and informed the jail that he suffered from PTSD.
The video shows Brown begging for water and air as they covered his head in a bag.
All of this happened over a DWI penalty in 2012, but the video of the incident was just released. The footage from the El Paso County Jail in Texas shows the last minutes of Brown’s life.
KFOX reports that the coroner helped the police cover up the murder by claiming that Brown died from “Sickle-Cell Anemia.”
Attorneys say that at no time was an ambulance or 911 called for this clearly distressed victim of the Prison Industrial Complex.
Watch the tragic video below…
The video shows guards inject Brown with two shots of lorazepam, a sedative, according to KFOX.
The soldier begs for water and for air. He tells the officers about his PTSD, explaining, “I’ve got problems.”
Once taken back to his cell, it is clear he is having breathing problems but the guards never called for help at any point.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement to CNN, which said that Brown died of natural causes.
“Mr. Brown’s death was an unfortunate tragedy… after a thorough investigation it was determined that his death was caused by a pre-existing medical condition.”
Brown’s mother, Dinette Robinson-Scott, said in an interview with local KFOX that she doesn’t understand how all of this could happen.
“I pray that new laws protecting soldiers in custody will be implemented, that the military adopt new policy procedures in regards to their soldiers being held in custody by an outside agency,” Robinson-Scott told the station in a statement. “If these changes can be made and our soldiers are protected, and another family never has to experience what my family has, then my son’s death would not been in vain.”
Brown’s family is filing suit against the jail.