Sgt. James Brown, 26, Survived Two Tours In Iraq Only To Die Begging For His Life In Texas Jail

Newly released video has revealed the dying moments of an African-American active-duty sol­dier who checked him­self into the El Paso, Texas, coun­ty jail for a two-day sen­tence for dri­ving under the influ­ence, and died while in cus­tody in 2012. Authorities claimed Sgt. James Brown died due to a pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tion, but shock­ing new video from inside the jail rais­es new ques­tions about what hap­pened. The video shows guards swarm­ing on top of him as he repeat­ed­ly says he can’t breathe and appears not to resist. By the end of the video, he is shown naked, not blink­ing or respond­ing, his breath­ing shal­low. Attorneys say an ambu­lance was nev­er called. Brown was even­tu­al­ly brought to a hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead. His fam­i­ly had long sus­pect­ed foul play in his death but received lit­tle infor­ma­tion from author­i­ties. They’ve now filed a law­suit against El Paso County say­ing his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were vio­lat­ed. We are joined by Brown’s moth­er, Dinetta Scott.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today with a sto­ry about an Iraq War vet­er­an who served two tours in Iraq only to die in a coun­ty jail in El Paso, Texas. Sergeant James Brown was just 26 years old when he mys­te­ri­ous­ly died in 2012 after he report­ed to jail for a two-day sen­tence for dri­ving while intox­i­cat­ed. Brown, who was African-American, was suf­fer­ing from post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der at the time. His fam­i­ly had long sus­pect­ed foul play in his death but received lit­tle infor­ma­tion from author­i­ties, who said he died because of a pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tion. Well, a local news sta­tion, KFOX14, recent­ly obtained video from inside the jail show­ing Brown’s last moments.

AMY GOODMAN: The video shows some­thing hap­pened which caused Brown to bleed in his cell. When he refus­es to speak with guards, a team in riot gear storms in and swarms on top of him, while he repeat­ed­ly says he can’t breathe and appears not to resist. A warn­ing to our audi­ence: The fol­low­ing video is disturbing.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: I can’t breathe! Dude, I can’t breathe! Help me! Help me! Help! I can’t breathe! I’m chok­ing on my blood! Help me! I’m chok­ing on my blood! I’m chok­ing on my blood! I’m chok­ing on my blood!

AMY GOODMAN: “I’m chok­ing on my blood!” said Sergeant James Brown. As his con­di­tion dete­ri­o­rates, as he’s car­ried to an infir­mary and has a mask placed over his face, he’s then giv­en an injec­tion. He begs for water and is giv­en half a Dixie cup as he heaves. Sergeant Brown repeat­ed­ly states he’s hav­ing severe trou­ble breathing.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: Now that’s block­ing too much air. That’s over my nose and my mouth. Could you unhook my arm out of this?

PRISON GUARD: You need to calm down first.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: Can I lay on the floor?

PRISON GUARD: No, sir.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: Well, you’re going to have to do one or the oth­er to help my breath­ing. Please, that’s all I ask.

PRISON GUARD: You got to calm down a lit­tle bit first.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: I will. I just need the mask — please.

PRISON GUARD: Relax.

SGT. JAMES BROWN: Please. Please. I can’t breathe. I can’t relax. You’ve got to take this mask off, dude, please.

PRISON GUARD: Can’t take it off, sir. I’m sorry.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: By the end of the video, Brown has said he can’t breathe at least 20 times. Then he is left naked in a cell, not blink­ing or respond­ing, his breath­ing shal­low. Attorneys say an ambu­lance was nev­er called. Brown was even­tu­al­ly brought to a hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead. Authorities claim he died from nat­ur­al caus­es after an autop­sy report cit­ed a, quote, “sick­le cell cri­sis.” But his fam­i­ly says he died as a result of his treat­ment in jail. The family’s attor­ney, B.J. Crow, spoke to KFOX.

B.J. CROW: When a 26-year-old active mil­i­tary per­son checks in to jail for a court-imposed sen­tence on a Friday, and he leaves Sunday, you know, in a cas­ket, some­thing went hor­ri­bly wrong there. He was bleed­ing out the ears, the nose, the mouth. His kid­neys shut down. His blood pres­sure dropped to a very dan­ger­ous lev­el. And his liv­er shut down.

AMY GOODMAN: Sergeant James Brown’s fam­i­ly has filed a law­suit against El Paso County say­ing his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were vio­lat­ed. Democracy Now! invit­ed El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles to join us on Democracy Now! today, but he declined. He did send a state­ment say­ing, quote, “Mr. Brown’s death was an unfor­tu­nate tragedy. The Sheriff’s Office has con­duct­ed a thor­ough review of the facts sur­round­ing Mr. Brown’s death and, based upon all the evi­dence obtained, deter­mined that his death was caused by a pre-exist­ing med­ical condition.”

Well, for more, we go to Seattle, Washington, where we’re joined by Sergeant James Brown’s moth­er, Dinetta Scott.

Ms. Scott, wel­come to Democracy Now! Can you explain the sig­nif­i­cance of this video that has now been released because a local TV sta­tion in El Paso had been try­ing to get it for years now? The death of your son, Sergeant Brown, occurred in 2012. It’s now 2015. Tell us about the sig­nif­i­cance of what you know now.

DINETTA SCOTT: Amy, I have not watched this video in its entire­ty. I have seen four sec­onds of it, and I heard my son beg­ging for his life. I can’t watch it. I do know that it is very dis­turb­ing. The part that I did see, where he is unable to breathe, it’s dev­as­tat­ing. It’s inhu­mane. It’s unex­plain­able what hap­pened to him.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Were you ever told by author­i­ties that the video exist­ed and why it’s nev­er come to light or been made pub­lic since then?

DINETTA SCOTT: No, that was nev­er explained to us.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of the autop­sy report, did author­i­ties — what did they tell you about how your son died?

DINETTA SCOTT: The med­ical exam­in­er stat­ed that it was a sick­le cell cri­sis due to him being restrained. That’s why he went into a sick­le cell cri­sis. And he stat­ed that he had viewed this on the video. And that’s when we said, “A video exists. We would like that video.” And noth­ing ever came of that until two-and-a-half years lat­er, which is where we’re at now.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the video is just aston­ish­ing. But can you go back to 2012 to — did you talk to your son before he self-report­ed into the jail? He was stopped for DUI, and he was going to be held — what? For two nights?

DINETTA SCOTT: Correct. He received the DWI in 2011, and they had con­tin­u­ous­ly went to court. When he got his sen­tenc­ing, it was five days with time served, so since he had already served three days when they ini­tial­ly picked him up, he only had to do the week­end. I spoke to him pri­or to him check­ing in on that Friday night, and then I received a call from him Saturday morn­ing, stat­ing that the jail­ers had said he was going to have to stay incar­cer­at­ed for sev­en days instead of the ini­tial two days. And he said, “Could you please send mon­ey so that I can pay the court fine, so that I can leave here? Because I need to report to duty on Monday.”

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, he had already served two tours in Iraq, and he was still on active duty?

DINETTA SCOTT: Correct.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when was he diag­nosed with post-trau­mat­ic stress?

DINETTA SCOTT: I believe it was the begin­ning of 2011.

AMY GOODMAN: Did he talk to you about the con­di­tions in the jail, Dinetta Scott?

DINETTA SCOTT: No, he just basi­cal­ly said he need­ed to get out of there, and could I please get the mon­ey so that he could leave, and he would explain every­thing to me when he got out.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe your son, Sergeant James Brown, to us?

DINETTA SCOTT: Excuse me. He was a joke­ster. He was very con­fi­dent, a nat­ur­al born leader, loy­al to no fault, a lov­ing per­son. Either you liked him, or you didn’t. He didn’t real­ly care what peo­ple thought of him. He just was a lov­ing kind of guy, one of a kind. And I’m not say­ing that just because he’s my son. He just was a gen­uine per­son. He didn’t sug­ar­coat things, and he didn’t lie to you. If you want­ed to know the truth, that’s the per­son that you would ask. And many of his friends said, you know, if you want­ed some­body to have your back, you want­ed James Brown to have your back.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the ter­ri­ble irony of him com­ing back from serv­ing his coun­try twice in Iraq to end up in a cell, dead in a cell, in El Paso, Texas?

DINETTA SCOTT: In that video, I heard my son beg­ging for his life on U.S. soil. This was not his ene­my that he was fac­ing. This was a U.S. cit­i­zen that was treat­ing him like he was an ani­mal. And it should not be allowed. That should not hap­pen to any­one in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: We were just show­ing pic­tures of James. How many kids does he have?

DINETTA SCOTT: Two.

AMY GOODMAN: How old are his children?

DINETTA SCOTT: His step­son, Armani, is 12, and his daugh­ter, Jayliah, is five.

AMY GOODMAN: When did he join the military?

DINETTA SCOTT: In 2005.

AMY GOODMAN: Was it right out of high school?

DINETTA SCOTT: No, he grad­u­at­ed in 2004, and he was in a car — a motor­cy­cle acci­dent in 2003, which he had to have a rod put into his femur, so he opt­ed to wait a year to have that rod removed so that he could join the mil­i­tary. So his join­ing was delayed.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In the past year or two, we’ve seen this enor­mous growth of the Black Lives Matter move­ment as a result of what’s hap­pened in Ferguson and Cleveland and oth­er African-American men killed under — in police cus­tody. Your son died almost three years ago. And your sense of the con­nec­tion to this move­ment that has grown up in the United States in the last two years?

DINETTA SCOTT: I believe it — race isn’t an issue. I believe it’s men who have been giv­en a cer­tain amount of author­i­ty who are abus­ing it. It’s very unfor­tu­nate that all the vic­tims have been African-American, but this lies with­in our sys­tem. These are peo­ple that are abus­ing their author­i­ty and using it inappropriately.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Dinetta Scott, what has hap­pened to these guards? One, the pile-on we see in the cell, then this mask is put over him. He is beg­ging, say­ing he’s not — he can’t take the mask off, can they take the mask off, that he can’t breathe, that he is chok­ing on his own blood. What hap­pened to all these guards?

DINETTA SCOTT: Absolutely nothing.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to play one clip for you. KFOX14 in El Paso inter­viewed one of the last peo­ple to see Sergeant Brown alive, a fel­low pris­on­er who spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymity.

ANONYMOUS PRISONER: He was like, “I didn’t do noth­ing. You know what? I’m stay­ing back here. I’m keep­ing my mouth shut.” Well, he grabbed him. They took him out, and they took him to a lit­tle room in front of us. They took him back there. They kind of roughed him up. And when they were bring­ing him out, a guard from behind gave him a — I don’t know what this shot is called. Some guys here were telling me that some places can do that. I nev­er knew they can do that. They gave him a shot, and he col­lapsed. I guess he didn’t react good to it. And when he col­lapsed, that’s when they jumped on him, and they kind of beat him up and picked — I mean, he was out of con­scious, so real­ly there was no need for them to jump on him the way they did. Pretty bad. Like he was already out of con­scious, and it’s like you jump­ing on some­body and putting your elbow in their neck. You know, you can prob­a­bly snap somebody’s neck like that. And they picked him up and dragged him out.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was a fel­low pris­on­er who spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty. He was speak­ing on a jail phone through a glass. Dinetta Scott, can you respond to what he described about what hap­pened to your son, Sergeant James Brown?

DINETTA SCOTT: It’s inex­cus­able. They all need to be held account­able for what they did to my son. The sher­iff made a state­ment that my son died of nat­ur­al caus­es. There was noth­ing nat­ur­al about the way that he died. They nev­er should have went in that cell. They nev­er should have pulled him out. And if there was a prob­lem, they should have con­tact­ed the mil­i­tary, or they should have con­tact­ed men­tal health, some­body that was able to deal with him, instead of rush­ing him like that and attack­ing him and beat­ing him when he’s down and can’t defend his self. It’s unacceptable.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you ask­ing for in the lawsuit?

DINETTA SCOTT: I want change. I want poli­cies and pro­ce­dures put in place that will pro­tect our sol­diers when they are in pub­lic facil­i­ties, that the mil­i­tary step in and take account­abil­i­ty for their sol­diers. These are men that they trained. They should nev­er be put in the hands of civil­ians, because civil­ians live one life, and sol­diers live anoth­er life. And they need to be dealt with by sol­diers. Policies need to be put in place for CID, that when an inci­dent hap­pens in a pub­lic facil­i­ty, they need to go in and inves­ti­gate, instead of just tak­ing the word of that insti­tu­tion. They need to find out what hap­pened to their sol­dier. And if they have a liai­son in place, they would already know what went wrong, when it went wrong, or what­ev­er the case may be. I believe if my son would have had a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the mil­i­tary with him every step of the way, we wouldn’t be here today.

AMY GOODMAN: One last ques­tion: Do we know what your son was inject­ed with? In that video, we see him inject­ed at least once by the guards.

DINETTA SCOTT: According to the report, it was [Haloperidol] and Ativan, com­bi­na­tion. I am not sure on the exact amount that was giv­en to him, but accord­ing to the jail report, that is what they state they gave him.

AMY GOODMAN: Dinetta Scott, we want to thank you for being with us, moth­er of Sergeant James Brown, also our con­do­lences. Sergeant James Brown died after being held in an El Paso County jail in 2012. He served in Iraq two tours of duty before he came home. He was on active duty at the time.

This is Democracy Now!, democ​ra​cynow​.org, The War and Peace Report. Do black women’s lives mat­ter? That’s the ques­tion that’s being raised by a group of peo­ple around the coun­try, those who have lost loved ones, black women, at the hands of author­i­ties, of police. Stay with us. SEE STORY HERE: Sgt. James Brown, 26, Survived Two Tours in Iraq Only to Die Begging for His Life in Texas Jail