DA won’t bring Brianna Grier death before grand jury
SPARTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The case of a Hancock County woman who died in law enforcement custody won’t go before a civil or criminal grand jury, prosecutors have decided.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Monday it had closed its investigation of the death of Brianna Grier and taken it to the Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney, who decided against bringing the case to grand jury.
Grier died after being arrested July 15 after a mental health episode. She fell out of a moving Hancock County Sheriff’s Office patrol car and died.
Well-known civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, spoke out about Monday’s news.
“Instead of helping Brianna Grier with her mental health crisis, Hancock County Sheriff’s (GA) deputies took her into custody, let her fall out of a moving patrol vehicle, and caused her death,” Crump tweeted. “The family of Brianna’s orphaned twin girls deserve ANSWERS! Demand ability.”
On July 29, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released the bodycam footage involving this case.
Full 10-minute video (viewer discretion is advised; uncensored profanity throughout the video):.
Deputies arrested Grier, 28, on July 15 after receiving a call from Grier’s parents who say she was behaving strangely.
In the early stages of the investigation, it was determined that while deputies were taking Grier to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, she fell out of the patrol car and suffered significant injuries.
Around 1 p.m. July 21, Grier was pronounced dead from her injuries at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Her body was taken to the GBI crime lab for an autopsy.
Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus asked the GBI’s regional investigation office in Milledgeville to investigate the incident on July 15.
On July 27, new details were released in the GBI’s investigation after numerous interviews, reviews of body camera footage and mechanical tests on the patrol car.
Agents concluded that the rear enger side door of the patrol car, near where Grier was sitting, was never closed.
After Grier was arrested, the two deputies attempted to put Grier in the patrol car. Both deputies and Grier were at the rear driver’s side door of the patrol car. Grier was on the ground refusing to get in the patrol car and made a statement that she was going to harm herself.
To put Grier in the patrol car, one of the deputies walked around and opened the rear enger side door. The deputy then returned to the rear driver’s side door, and both deputies put Grier in the backseat of the patrol car.
Investigators say Grier was handcuffed in the front of her body and was not wearing a seatbelt.
The deputies closed the rear driver’s side door. The investigation shows that the deputy thought he closed the rear enger side door.
The deputies left the scene and drove a short distance. Body camera footage reveals the deputies had no other with Grier from the time she was placed in the car until she fell out of the moving car.
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