Commissioner Simmons calls for outside investigation
By Texas Metro News Breaking News Team
Fort Worth – The family of a Fort Worth man arrested three weeks ago and detained at the Tarrant County Jail said he sustained life-threatening head injuries there that have left him brain dead.
Lea and Joseph Hurd said Friday their son, Mack Greer, 46, of Fort Worth, is now being kept alive at JPS Hospital in Fort Worth only so his organs may be donated. The family said Mr. Greer was declared legally deceased Thursday afternoon.
Joseph Hurd, Mr. Greer’s stepfather said he questioned a Tarrant County Sheriff’s Officer, who visited him Thursday at his home, regarding how his son had sustained head injuries while incarcerated. He said the officer, whom he did not name, tried “to make me believe that my son killed himself.”
“There’s not a lot of information, no tape, no witnesses, no one to say my son killed himself, besides them,” said Mr. Hurd. “And the bruises on my son, he couldn’t have done himself. We want some answers.”
“Why did they bring him here dead already?” he asked. “He didn’t die here. He was brought here dead.”
In a post on the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Commissioner Simmons wrote, “When a person suffers fatal injuries while in the custody and care of our county jail, families deserve answers. The public deserves transparency. And accountability should not depend on paperwork completed after a person has been hospitalized.”
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office released a statement Friday saying some of the details stated by the Commissioner were “misinformation” and Mr. Greer was still alive, although family members disputed that narrative.
“We are aware of the allegations made by Commissioner Simmons during today’s press conference and, not surprisingly, it contains a lot of misinformation and half-truths,” read the statement. “This is nothing more than political grandstanding. Frankly, it’s terribly insensitive to hold a press conference while the man is dying.“
The Hurd family spoke during a news conference held at JPS Hospital Friday afternoon. Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons called the news event out of concern over an escalating number of deaths of people in the custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
“…My office got a call Wednesday. I spoke with the family. I came to this hospital to meet the family, and I had an opportunity to visit Mr. Greer on (a) ventilator, in this hospital with a misshaped head and bruises that, from the photographs I had seen, did not depict accurately,” she said.
Simmons called for an outside investigation into the number of deaths at the County Jail over the past eight years.
Mr. Greer is the third person who has died this week in custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff, Bill Waybourn, runs the Tarrant County Jail.
On Monday, James Johnson, a 41-year-old man incarcerated at the Tarrant County Jail, was pronounced dead after being transported to JPS Hospital. A cause of death is pending. The man had been booked into the County Jail less than 24 hours earlier.
Tuesday, Sheriff’s Department officials said a second County Jail inmate, Carl McCray was found kneeling next to his bed. He was transported to JPS Hospital, where he died later that day.
Activists said there have been 78 deaths at the Jail since 2018. Four have occurred this year.
Friday, the Hurds said they did not believe their son injured himself while in jail because “Mack Greer did not tolerate pain very well.”
“He was scared of pain, so he did not bang his own head in four or five different places,” said Lea Hurd of her son, whom she said was one of seven children.
“Y’all killed my son. I’m here to say it and I don’t care,” she said, “Y’all killed my son and, if you didn’t, bring it out.”
Friday, a coalition of ministers, community activists and other families whose members have died in custody of the County Sheriff’s Office attended the news conference, vowing to lobby the Sheriff’s Office to explain the deaths.
Dr. Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Church in Fort Worth, who spoke at the news conference, cited the irony of holding it on Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating freedom, while families were in the “bondage of grief.”
Jacqualyne Johnson, whose family has a pending lawsuit against Tarrant County in connection with the in-custody death of her son, Anthony Johnson, Jr., in 2024, suggested to those gathered that Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourne should be accountable for the deaths.
She said community members “need to know about the systemic failures inside that jail.”
