This is an opinion column.

Christopher Shane McKinney may not have known exactly what he wanted when he went to the Etowah County Sheriffs office in Gadsden on January 24, 2018. I need some help, he told officers, according to a lawsuit filed against the Sheriffs department last December in Northern District Court. I just need some help.

He believed people were trying to hurt him, the suit says. Maybe even kill him.

He certainly did not come to the sheriffs office to die.

Yet he did--after a physical encounter in which he was tased, handcuffed and wrestled to the ground by Etowah County Sheriff deputies and officers, hitting his head on the ground at least once, the lawsuit contends.

Sheriffs department employees illegally detained him, rifled his pockets, attempted to handcuff him, subdued him by force, and ultimately killed him by deploying tasers into sensitive areas of his upper body, according to the lawsuit, filed in December.

McKinney, who is African American, died on the concrete outside Etowah County Sheriffs Department as its employee laughed and complained about having to use unwarranted force upon a person who had committed no crime, had no weapon, the suit says. (According to reports, McKinney was taken to a Gadsden hospital, where he was declared dead.)

McKinney was 39 and a father of three, according to his obituary.

In January, the Etowah sheriffs department filed a motion to dismiss a portion, but not all of the complaint, which was filed by James McKinney, Christophers brother, on behalf of the estate. The motion, in part, states the sheriffs department is not a legal entity subject to suit."

Christopher McKinney possessed a mental illness that affected one or more major life activities, including, but not limited to, thinking, working and communicating with others, the suit alleges.

On that fateful day, Jamie Capes, an Etowah County Sheriffs employee, allegedly noticed McKinney pacing the parking lot as she walked to her car. She then saw him walk up and down the entrance stairs, the lawsuit states.

She returned inside and told Deputy Anthony Davis and Sgt. William Langdale what she saw, and both went outside to investigate, the complaint says.

Davis and Langdale asked McKinney to come inside the office, which he did, then asked his name.

I just need some help, McKinney declared. People have been hurting me.

McKinney declined to give his name and said, Thats OK, according to the complaint.

Then McKinney attempted to leave the Sheriffs Office, sliding his body out of the door as Langdale was blocking the entryway, according to the complaint. (The defendants, in a January filing, deny this.)

Langdale asked McKinney if he had identification. When McKinney said he did, Langdale grabbed McKinneys arm in one hand and grabbed McKinneys wallet out of his back pocket, then twisted McKinneys arm in an attempt to handcuff him, the lawsuit says. (Defendants deny these descriptions of the encounter.)

I didnt do anything, McKinney said. Please help me.

What happened in the next few moments was chaoticand deadly.

Langsdale pulled away and tased McKinney, who, according to the suit, attempted to pull the Taser leads out of his [upper torso].

Langsdale and Davis both converged on McKinney trying to wrestle him to the ground, the suit says.

Davis deployed his Taser at close rage into McKinneys torso and again directly into McKinneys abdomen, according to the suit. (Defendants admit a Taser was used on McKinney.)

Other officers are alleged to have joined the melee, including Corrections Officers Brandon Hare and Logan Page, says the suit. Deputies called out on the radio for additional help.

Hare allegedly tased McKinney, who falls face down on the ground, after which Page tased McKinney again. Davis then double handcuffed the now prone and inert McKinney and left [him] face down on the concrete while a crowd of Sheriffs Department employees gathered. (Defendants admit two pair (sic) of handcuffs were linked together to handcuff McKinney.)

One officer is alleged to have declared he had wasted $100.00 worth of [Taser] cartridges on [McKinney]. Another claimed his sunglasses were broken in the scuffle. (Defendants admit both things occurred.)

After a long delay, the Sheriffs deputies decided to roll the now silent McKinney onto his back, allowing his head to hit the concrete with an audible thud, the complaint reads.

Officers discussed the incident, accused McKinney of being high on drugs, according to the suit.

For the first several minutes, no Sheriffs Department employee rendered any aid, other than to walk near McKinneys body and declare that he was still breathing.

Until he died. On the concrete. With no outstanding arrest warrants, no weapon, and no, it was later discerned, according to the complaint, illegal drugs in his system.

Christopher Shane McKinney almost certainly did not come to the Etowah County Sheriffs office that day to die face down on the concrete.

James McKinney alleges Langdale, Davis, Hare and Page subjected [Christopher] McKinney to physical abuse and did so without a warrant, violating McKinneys Fourth Amendment right to be free from arrest without probable cause and/or to be free from unreasonable seizure.

McKinney, the suit says was harmless, that he had a mental illness

[Officers] knew or should have known that McKinney is a person with a disability because it was obvious and they were alerted to that fact by their co-worker, the suit says. [And] failed to reasonably accommodate that disability

McKinney died at the hands of these officers as a result of their failure to reasonably accommodate his disability.

The suit also alleges the department has not implemented any relevant policies or trained its employees on the application of the [Americans with] Disabilities Act or the Rehabilitation Act to the interactions with citizens who seek help ...

The estate, according to the suit, requests unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, plus reasonable attorneys fees, injunctive relief and such other relief as this Court deems just and proper.

The defendants denied 25 of the allegations outlined in the complaint, including that officers left McKinney face down on the concrete while a crowd of Sheriffs Department employees gathered.

On Friday afternoon, February 7, the case is set for a telephone conference before Judge Corey L. Maze.

In his obituary, it says McKinney graduated from Gadsden High School, worked for UPS for 15 years and was a member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church.

Among the items to be considered during the 2020 state legislative session, which began Tuesday, is providing the states too-long-neglected Department of Mental Health with $18 million to build three crisis centers.

A center that could have perhaps provided Christopher McKinney with a place to gosomeplace where he might have been able to get the help he asked for.

Someplace where he may not have been tased, wrestled to the floor, double handcuffed, and died.

A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj

Originally posted here:

Mans death after encounter with Etowah Sheriffs Department is call to action on mental health - AL.com