(NewsNation) — A Georgia woman died after falling from a moving police car after an officer failed to close the rear passenger door, state investigators have found.
Brianna Marie Greer, 28, died Thursday, two weeks after falling from a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy’s patrol car. the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.
Greer’s family called the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office for help on the morning of July 15 because she was having a schizophrenic episode, according to local television station WMAZ-13.
When they responded to the call, two Hancock County officers arrested Greer.
Greer was on the ground and refused to get into the vehicle and made a statement that he was going to harm himself, deputies said. To get Greer into the car, one of the deputies went around and opened the passenger side rear door, then quickly returned to the driver’s side rear door. The two deputies then placed Greer in the backseat of the car, the GBI said. Although they closed the rear door on the driver’s side, they did not do the same for the passenger side.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigationwho was tapped to verify what happened, said Greer was placed in the back seat of the car, handcuffed across the front of her body, without a seat belt.
“Investigation indicates the aide thought he had closed the rear side door,” the GBI said.
Body camera footage shows deputies had no other contact with Greer until she fell from the moving vehicle.
The names of the MPs involved have not been released.
Greer’s parents told WMAZ the sheriff initially told them their daughter kicked her way out of the cruiser.
Mary Greer, Brianna’s mother, told WMAZ she was shocked when she saw her daughter at the hospital.
“If I had known it was going to turn out like this, God knows I wouldn’t have called to come and get her,” Mary Greer said.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the bureau’s findings Thursday to NBC News.
However, Sheriff Terrell Primus addressed about a dozen demonstrators marching in Greer’s honor and offered his condolences to her family, according to the Union-Recorder.
He said the body camera footage will be released after the GBI investigation is complete and that the department has nothing to hide.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is now being held by Greer’s parents, according to NBC.
“Brianna Greer was a beautiful young mother who should still be alive,” Crump said in a statement. “It is the responsibility of law enforcement to keep everyone in their custody safe and alive, including when there is a mental health crisis.”
https://www.wkrg.com/national/deputies-didnt-close-patrol-car-door-before-handcuffed-womans-fatal-fall-investigators-say/