Texas Police Officers Showed ‘Deliberate Indifference’ To 23-Year-Old Black Man’s Distress Before He Died

From time to time, we talk about the cru­el­ty and bar­barism of American Police par­tic­u­lar­ly to mem­bers of the African American Community; when they are wrong, this medi­um tol­er­ates no cp-splain­ing on behalf of police who over­step their bounds and abuse mem­bers of the pub­lic or even show dis­re­spect toward the public.
However, hav­ing watched this par­tic­u­lar video and seen how this offi­cer spoke to the sus­pect in her charge, I found noth­ing unto­ward in how she treat­ed him. In fact, I thought she was extreme­ly cour­te­ous and accom­mo­dat­ing to his needs as she trans­port­ed him to jail.
On find­ing out that he had passed out, she imme­di­ate­ly com­menced chest com­pres­sion while shout­ing for help. I hon­est­ly do not see what she could have done dif­fer­ent­ly, except to stop at the time he said he felt like he was about to pass out, which could have been a ploy that would poten­tial­ly allow him to flee her cus­tody or do poten­tial harm to her.
Nevertheless, the fore­gone are my opin­ions only oth­ers may see this much dif­fer­ent­ly. (MB)

After the fam­i­ly of a Black man who died in police in 2019 filed a wrong­ful death suit against three Texas offi­cers, police cam­era footage of the moments lead­ing up to the man’s death has been made public.

Darren Boykin, 23, died in police cus­tody in August 2019 after Texarkana College police offi­cers con­front­ed him in a cam­pus build­ing under the sus­pi­cion that he had been involved in a theft. Boykin report­ed­ly fled the offi­cers and ran a half-mile before he was appre­hend­ed off-campus.

After Texarkana Police con­tact­ed Boykin and learned he had a felony war­rant in Ohio, offi­cers took him into cus­tody. They trans­port­ed him to jail, where­upon he was dis­cov­ered unre­spon­sive before he could be booked. Boykin was then tak­en to a hos­pi­tal, where he was pro­nounced dead.

According to a law­suit filed by Boykin’s moth­er, Keisha Boykin, in the U.S. District Court in Texarkana, Texas, on Aug. 29, offi­cers ignored Boykin’s com­plaints of dis­tress and denied him med­ical care“.

It was clear that this wasn’t just some­one who hap­pened to die. It was some­one who was com­plain­ing that they were in dis­tress, that they need­ed help and they were in a sit­u­a­tion where they couldn’t pro­vide them­selves with that care,” said attor­ney James Roberts, an attor­ney for the fam­i­ly, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report­ed

Texarkana Police Officers Jerrika Weaver and Brent Hobbs, and their super­vi­sor dur­ing the arrest, Sgt. William Scott is named as the defen­dant in the lawsuit.

The high tem­per­a­ture in Texarkana reached 91 degrees on Aug. 29, 2019, the day Boykin died after try­ing to flee Texarkana College Police on foot.

Boykin was lying down, hand­cuffed and breath­ing heav­i­ly before offi­cers car­ried him to a patrol car. Responding Texarkana Police dis­cov­ered that Boykin had an Ohio driver’s license and a felony war­rant in the state. Boykin told offi­cers he’d been in Texarkana for about six months. Texarkana offi­cers Weaver, Hobbs, and Scott, dis­cussed Boykin’s com­plaints about not being able to breathe on dif­fer­ent occa­sions, but the offi­cers nev­er act­ed on his concerns.

“Being the sergeant and super­vi­sor on scene, defen­dant Scott had the abil­i­ty to call for med­ical assis­tance or direct defen­dant Hobbs or defen­dant Weaver to call for med­ical assis­tance for Darren,” the law­suit says.

Video footage of the inci­dent shows Boykin sit­ting in the back of the patrol car. “Please help me,” Boykin said.

OK, can you help me back here?” Boykin said before com­plain­ing about his leg. Weaver replied, “I’m gonna help you get your way down to the jail.”

Weaver offered to roll the win­dow down, then agreed to keep the air con­di­tion­ing on after Boykin said an open win­dow would make it hot­ter in the vehicle.

“I’m gonna pass out,” Boykin said. Weaver told Boykin to “lean against the glass,” say­ing he’d be all right as Boykin appeared to lose con­scious­ness in the back seat and no longer respond­ed to Weaver’s questions.

“You know you’re still going to jail, either way, right?” Weaver said. “You know some­one that pass­es out isn’t able to stop them­selves from falling for­ward, right? Fun fact,” she added, as Boykin con­tin­ued not to respond.

When the patrol car arrived at the Bowie County jail, Weaver told Boykin she wasn’t going to drag him inside. “Come on, quit play­ing,” she said.

When Boykin con­tin­ued not to respond, Weaver pulled him out of the vehi­cle and began per­form­ing CPR.

“You know how he’s got the felony faint in the back­seat? ‘Oh, I’m gonna pass out.’ He’s fine. He kept say­ing he was tired, his legs hurt, he kept want­i­ng to lay down. Normal stuff when you’re get­ting charged with felonies,” Weaver told med­ical per­son­nel when they arrived.

Boykin was trans­port­ed to a hos­pi­tal and pro­nounced dead.

According to the law­suit, Boykin died because offi­cers “delib­er­ate­ly chose not to pro­vide med­ical care” and showed “delib­er­ate indif­fer­ence” to his distress.

A cus­to­di­al death report pre­pared by the Texarkana College Police says Boykin’s death was “nat­ur­al” and notes “com­pli­ca­tions of sick­le cell trait,” as found at autopsy.

Texarkana Police declined to com­ment on the mat­ter, cit­ing pend­ing lit­i­ga­tion. The law­suit alleges civ­il rights vio­la­tions and seeks puni­tive dam­ages and com­pen­sa­tion for Boykin’s suf­fer­ing and his mother’s men­tal anguish.