Good Cops and Bad Cops: "You Promised You Wouldn't Hurt Me!"

This post first appeared on my old Good Cops and Bad Cops blog on 2-June-2015. And now it's here.

On 8 February 2015 Natasha McKenna, a 37 year old mother of a 7 year old girl, died in Virginia. The cause of death was "excited delirium associated with physical restraint including use of a conductive energy device."

In other words, a woman who was mentally ill was handcuffed and shackled and tasered multiple times to make her compliant. And then her heart stopped. How did this happen?

On 15 January Alexandria police got a report of a woman being disruptive near a Hertz Rental Car location. Six officers arrived and subdued McKenna with the help of pepper spray after she punched one of them in the face. These cops did the right thing after the the struggle was over when they got this troubled woman to a hospital, instead of taking her to jail.

Unfortunately, a felony warrant was later issued for McKenna for punching the officer. A psychotic episode was now a crime. Out of the hospital on 26 January Mckenna was picked up again and this time ended up in Fairfax County jail.

More than a week later, on the morning of 3 February, Fairfax County Sheriff's deputies prepared to move McKenna to Alexandria where she had "assaulted" the officer. She agreed to cooperate and allowed herself to be handcuffed, but then she began to struggle, crying out, "You promised you wouldn't hurt me!"

Six Emergency Response Team members wearing white biohazard suits and gas masks worked for 20 minutes to get McKenna fully restrained. When they were done she was in handcuffs hobbled to leg shackles and wearing a mask to prevent biting.

Next, deputies tried to strap Mckenna into a restraint chair. She wouldn't bend her legs so one of the deputies punched her knees repeatedly. Finally, one of the deputies shot her four times with a taser. This in spite of the fact that tasers are not supposed to be used in cases of excited delirium, or more than three times in quick succession.

The shocks apparently disabled her enough so she could be strapped into the chair, but when deputies got her to the entrance for transportation, a nurse noticed she wasn't breathing and had no pulse. The nurse called an ambulance and deputies began CPR. McKenna's heart started beating again 20 minutes later on the way to the hospital. She stopped breathing at least three more times, once for 5 minutes. Five days later, she died.

As criminologist and former San Jose Police Officer Ron Martinelli said "You need to treat that prisoner like a patient, not a suspect. She is already restrained, why don't you let her calm down?"

McKenna was mentally ill and, in her final moments, she was distraught and needed help. But she didn't get help. Instead she got shackled and punched and shocked over and over again until her heart stopped. The people who did that to her were bad cops.

For more information click on the links below:

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/fairfax-jail-inmate-who-died-was-fully-restrained-when-tasered-four-times/2015/04/11/ede0957c-decd-11e4-be40-566e2653afe5_story.html
• http://www.peteearley.com/2015/02/23/natasha-mckenna-case-exposes-flaws-in-how-someone-in-crisis-is-treated-its-bigger-than-jail/
• http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Police-Investigating-Womans-In-Custody-Death-Natasha-Mckenna-Fairfax-291740321.html
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/13/1377417/-Report-confirms-that-police-killed-Natasha-McKenna-with-her-hands-cuffed-and-legs-shackled
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/04/13/the-death-of-natasha-mckenna-in-the-fairfax-jail-the-rest-of-the-story/
• http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/05/when_will_we_demand_justice_for_natasha_mckenna.html

Copyright © 2016 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

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