‘He suffered,’ LaSandra Scott said of her son’s death in the custody of Collin County jailers. ‘He suffered. He suffered.’
In a St. Louis cemetery lie two men whose lives ended prematurely after interactions with law enforcement.
The first, Michael Brown Jr., was shot by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer nearly seven years ago — a killing that helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement. The second is Marvin Scott III, who died in the custody of Collin County jailers four months ago after he was pepper sprayed and shackled to a restraint bed.
The final resting spot of Brown and Scott aren’t the only similarities they share, Scott’s mother, LaSandra Scott, said Monday, four weeks after a grand jury decided not to indict any of the jailers in her son’s death.
“Their family didn’t get an indictment,” she said. “… The injustice. This is awful. Absolutely awful. To have to bury my child — awful. Awful.”
During a news conference at the Collin County Courthouse, Scott’s mother and his family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said they still believe criminal accountability is the appropriate response for at least some of the jailers who were with Scott in his final hours. His family said he was in the midst of a mental-health crisis when he died.
“He suffered,” LaSandra Scott said. “He suffered. He suffered.”
“He was killed.” “He was actually killed.” “My son was killed by these individuals.” “He was killed, brutally.”
“It’s wrong. It’s wrong.”
Scott, 26, had been arrested at a mall in Allen after he was allegedly found with a small amount of marijuana March 14. He was first taken to a hospital, then to the Collin County Jail.
At the jail, Merritt said, Scott was first placed into a general holding cell, where he rocked back and forth, sweated, smiled, danced and laughed. He was then placed in an isolation cell, where he began taking off his clothes.
Although his behavior was unusual, Merritt said, Scott showed no signs he wanted to hurt himself or others. The next steps the jailer took were not only wrong, they were criminally negligent, Merritt said.
“Marvin Scott was punished for being in a mental-health crisis,” he said. “It wasn’t that the officers failed to identify the mental-health crisis, it wasn’t that they misinterpreted the mental-health crisis. They identified him as someone in crisis, and instead of treating him compassionately from the moment that they opened the door … they quickly escalated this encounter.”
Scott’s family said they think the grand jury didn’t have all the evidence when it decided June 22 not to charge eight jailers in the death. Because grand jury proceedings are secret, it’s not clear what the panel saw or didn’t see. But Scott’s family said they still haven’t seen crucial pieces of evidence — including his full autopsy report.
“I don’t know how a grand jury, knowing the evidence that we have, could come to the conclusion that there was no criminal misconduct, so it is my assumption that whatever was presented to the grand jury was lacking,” Merritt said.
Seven of the jailers were fired after Scott’s death, and an eighth resigned. One of the fired officers successfully appealed the decision, and the appeal process is continuing for several others.
Next steps for Scott’s relatives include meetings with federal prosecutors. They are also examining the possibility of filing a complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act for the way Scott was treated at the jail.
Merritt said several institutions failed Scott and contributed to the events that led to his death — from the people who called police instead of mental-health professionals while Scott was at the mall, to the hospital employees who decided to release Scott to the custody of the jail, to the jailers he said reacted “violently and hostilely” toward somebody who clearly needed help.
“There were 1,000 opportunities to save Marvin’s life here,” he said.
The Collin County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment Monday, citing current and potential upcoming litigation in the case. In a written statement released shortly after the grand jury’s decision, Skinner called for more comprehensive systems to be put in place to care for people with mental-health conditions.
Merritt on Monday thanked Skinner for his handling of the case and said he “kept his word” by releasing some video showing the circumstances surrounding Scott’s death as quickly as allowed by law.
Although the grand jury took the rare step of releasing a written statement urging that a working group be convened to study the circumstances surrounding the death, Scott’s mother said using her son as a “case study” is not justice.
“This was horrible. And for these individuals to go home with their family, and to be there Easter, Mother’s Day and Fourth of July — they just get to sit back and say, ‘Oh, we made it, we made it through. Nothing’s going to happen,’ ” she said. “On God, yes.”
