The sheriff's office said detention officers were conducting routine cell checks for contraband when they approached Johnson's cell and he wouldn't allow them…
They want to see video of the incident, they want a federal investigation, and they want accountability and change.
They said staff began CPR and then took Johnson to JPS Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after 10 a.m.Tuesday's commissioners court agenda listed an item related to this,"Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Update Regarding Incidents in the County Jail." Chanell, Janell, and Jacqualyne Johnson brought their questions and demands for accountability to commissioners court on Tuesday. “Does the Tarrant County Jail have some form of a special response team on a 24/7 basis?” she said, wondering if there are detention officers who can coax noncompliant inmates.
The sheriff's office said Johnson was standing in an intersection brandishing a knife at a driver, then ran away from officers.“I told him to take care, be safe in there," she recalled. They said the sheriff met with them to tell them there may have been an altercation before Johnson's death, and that it was being investigated, but the family said they haven't received any communication from the Rangers.“How do you tell somebody who has been following everything from the rule book; from the Marine Corps who taught him how to defend himself, to contacting , to finding a facility, all the way down to letting the arresting officers know that he was schizophrenic...
After that press conference, NBC 5 asked for a response to calls for a federal investigation, but Waybourn declined to answer.The Johnsons want every step of the county's mental health system reviewed and fixed.According to data, Tarrant County jail has had 63 reported inmate deaths since 2017.
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