A family is demanding answers after a Georgia woman died while in police custody earlier this month.
On July 15, Hancock County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested 28-year-old Brianna Marie Grier from her a residence as they were responding to a mental health call, the Daily Beast reported.
Authorities then began transporting her to the sheriff’s office when she allegedly kicked the door open and fell out of the police vehicle.
Shortly after the incident she was placed in a coma at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta where she died nearly a week later from her injuries.
The Georgia Bureau of investigation has launched an inquiry into Grier’s death and will have her body examined at the bureau’s Crime Lab for an autopsy report.
The GBI added that, “Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus asked the GBI’s regional investigate office in Milledgeville to investigate on July 15 following the initial incident,” the Independent reported.
According to ABC News, the facts remain unclear as to why Grier was taken into custody, whether the doors were properly secured and the speed at which the patrol car was traveling.
Marvin Grier, Brianna’s father told the Daily Beast that she was recently diagnosed with Schizophrenia and was experiencing an episode the day of the incident. Law enforcement informed Grier that they would be doing a routine mental check.
“They told her they were going to detain her until the next morning when they would come up and do a 10-13 – that is to take her to a facility…to get someone to come get her from the police department to get her some help. But she never made it there,” he said.
Grier’s mother, Mary told WMAZ that she is skeptical of how law enforcement is recounting the events.
“If she got out of the car, they had to have let her out of the car,” she said. “That’s my interpretation because in a police car you can’t open the door from the inside so it had to have been opened from the outside.”
She added that if she “had known it would turn out like this, God knows I wouldn’t have called them to come and get her.”
Marvin told the Daily Beast that Grier is leaving behind young twins who are unaware of her passing.
“I told the babies that the police had to take their mama away and she needed some help,” said Marvin. “We haven’t told them anything else, you know…about this situation.”
