(Photo by Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Brianna Grier‘s family is seeking $100 million from Hancock County Sheriff’s Office in a recently filed civil rights lawsuit. Last summer, Brianna–a Georgia mother–died after falling out of a police car.
The suit, obtained by CBS News, was announced on Wednesday (May 25) and named the agency, Sheriff Tomlyn Primus, his brother, Lt. Marlin Primus, and Deputy Timothy Legette as defendants.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Grier’s family in the lawsuit, says that deputies “unlawfully and willfully seized and restrained” Grier in the moments leading to her death.
“(They) falsely arrested” her, and “picked her up and dropped her multiple times, ignored her cries for help and deprived her of medical assistance, caused injury to her head and brain and ultimately caused her death, misrepresented the true facts, and defamed her.”
“This young, beautiful Black woman needed help,” Crump told reporters in a news conference Wednesday.
Grier’s parents called 911 on July 15 because their daughter reportedly threatened to harm herself and her twin 4-year-old daughters.
The 28-year-old, who is a diagnosed schizophrenic, died six days later on July 21, according to PEOPLE. The mother-of-two allegedly suffered a schizophrenic episode during her fatal accident.
Authorities say she fell out of a patrol car less than a minute into the ride after sheriff’s deputies handcuffed her and put her in the back of the vehicle.
Police unwittingly left the rear passenger-side door open, an investigation later uncovered per NBC News. However, authorities attempted to claim that Grier kicked her way out of the car door.
Bodycam footage shows the chilling moments immediately following Briana falling out of the car.
“Since she was handcuffed there was no breaking the fall,” Crump said. “Her skull hit the road.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) ultimately closed its investigation into Grier’s death, and no arrests were made. Meanwhile, according to the CBI, the Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney similarly declined to bring the case to a civil or criminal grand jury.
The family alleges that responding deputies were aware of Grier’s condition.
