Lashawn Thompson, 35.
A man found dead and covered in lice and feces in an Atlanta jail, in the southeastern United States, was malnourished, dehydrated and had not received his schizophrenia medication for a month, a private coroner said Monday.
Source: AFP
The official coroner for Fulton County, in the state of Georgia, had ruled in September that The cause of death for Lashawn Thompson, 35, was “undetermined.”
But Roger Mitchell, andThe coroner hired by the family of the deceased affirmed that he had been “neglected to death” and described what happened as “homicide”.
Thompson’s family released Mitchell’s report Monday, and the lawyers they hired called on authorities to take responsibility.
“For 93 days there was a serious abandonment of a mentally ill citizen”, said Ben Crump, the famed civil rights lawyer who has handled numerous cases of police abuse against African-Americans.
“It was not a natural death. It was a homicide.”Crump stated.
Thompson, a homeless African American, he had been arrested on June 12, 2022 while sleeping in a park in front of an Atlanta daycare.
He had an outstanding arrest warrant for robbery, but he was jailed for “assault” by allegedly spitting at law enforcement officers.
He remained in jail as he was unable to pay bail to be released.
In the first two months of his imprisonment, Thompson was in good shape, according to Mitchell’s report.
The prison’s mental health officer reported on July 27 that he was in a clean cell, was living normally, was healthy, and was taking his medication for bipolar and schizoaffective disorders.
According to Mitchell, in the following 43 days there were hardly any reports of his care and no records to receive your medications.
When the coroner was able to examine Thompson’s body, days after his death, he discovered that he was suffering from malnutrition and dehydration; he had lost 18% of his body weight and had extensive and severe lice infestation.
Crump demanded that local authorities investigate the death, but he did not file a civil suit, as he has done in many previous cases of deaths at the hands of police.
“Someone has to be held accountable for this.” said the attorney, who called the death “criminal negligence.”
