The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has released bodycam footage of the arrest of a woman who died after falling out of a moving patrol car. **Warning: Video is graphic and may be disturbing to watch.**
Georgia investigators released body camera video of an incident earlier this month in which a cuffed woman fell out of a moving law enforcement vehicle.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, released the footage two days after concluding that Brianna Grier fell from the passenger side door of a patrol vehicle driven by a Hancock County sheriff’s officer because the door was not closed.
Grier, 28, died of her injuries on July 21 after being in a coma for several days following the July 14 interaction with sheriff’s deputies at her family’s Sparta home.
Grier, who has schizophrenia, was undergoing a mental health crisis when her family called for help.
The agency, which is investigating the fatal event, had stated that it will publish the body camera video after analyzing it with Grier’s family members.
Members of the family and their attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, have demanded an explanation for what happened.
The body camera footage appears to show two sheriff’s deputies taking Grier, who looks to be cuffed and upset, to a police vehicle by her arms and legs.
The video shows a deputy unholstering a stun pistol and activating it while holding it at his side, not pointing it at her, and instructing her to “get up.” He then re-holsters the stun gun, and the two deputies hoist her into the back seat of the vehicle.
According to the GBI, Grier was placed in the car cuffed, with her wrists in front of her body and no seat belt.
The footage appears to show the rear driver’s side door being closed.
According to the GBI, neither deputy had any further interaction with Grier from the moment she was placed in the vehicle until she tumbled out of the moving car a short drive later. According to the video, the deputies were in separate vehicles.
Following her fall, the deputy driving her appears to stop the car, get out, and approach Grier, who is face-down and unconscious in the grass by the roadside.
In the footage, the deputy touches her on the side to try to shake her up and says he’ll call an ambulance.
The video appears to show the second deputy noting she is breathing, ordering her to sit up, and then sitting her up when she does not respond.
In the video, the passenger side door of the patrol vehicle she was in appears to be open.
In the video, the second deputy says, “How’s your back door open?” ”
That is an issue that the entire family is concerned about. Crump, who represents Grier’s family, stated last week that they are seeking answers.
“Everybody knows that it is not supposed to be possible to open a police vehicle from the back seat, especially when a person is in handcuffs,” Crump said.
“Brianna’s family had faith in law enforcement to get her the help she needed, and now they are being forced to grieve her completely unnecessary death,” he said.
According to the GBI, when the deputies were attempting to get Grier into the police vehicle, one of them opened the passenger side door.
According to the investigation, the deputy assumed he closed the passenger side door. Grier’s family also wonders why she was detained by law enforcement.
