Underfed, dehydrated, and eaten by bedbugs, a schizophrenic inmate died because of “severe neglect” in a southern US jail, according to an independent autopsy report released on Monday.
Lashawn Thompson, a homeless 35-year-old African-American man, had been taken into custody in June by the sheriff of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta, after spitting on an officer.
On 13 September, he was found dead, emaciated and extremely dirty, his body infested with insects, in a cell in the psychiatric wing of the local jail.
Official autopsy said the cause of death was ‘undetermined’
An official autopsy initially ruled the cause of death “undetermined” against a backdrop of “schizophrenic and bipolar disorder.”
With funds paid for by American-football player Colin Kaepernick, who is heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter movement against racism and police violence, Thompson’s family commissioned an independent medical examiner to find out more.
In his autopsy report, released on Monday, Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., a former chief medical examiner in Washington, D.C., and current chair of the pathology department at Howard University College of Medicine, concluded that Thompson died of “complications due to severe neglect.”
No schizophrenia medication for weeks
He said Thompson had been prescribed medication to contain his schizophrenia when he arrived in prison, but appears not to have received it for at least 43 days, precipitating his decline, as he was unable to eat, drink or bathe without treatment.
At the time of his death, he was 50 pounds lighter than when he was admitted, dehydrated and covered in a layer of filth, the doctor noted.
His body harboured untold numbers of insects, including in his nose and mouth, as well as multiple bites on his arms and legs, added the doctor, who considers it possible that the high number of bugs had caused anaemia.
‘Neglected to death’
He eventually succumbed to cardiac arrhythmia, but this was not a natural cause of death. “Lashawn Thompson was neglected to death,” Dr. Mitchell wrote, calling Thompson's death a “homicide.”
“These autopsy findings confirm that Lashawn Thompson was killed by the extreme neglect of the Fulton County Jail and its staff," Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Thompson's family in a lawsuit against the jail, said in a statement issued on Monday just before a press conference. "He was dehydrated, malnourished, and his body was infested inside and out with insects – it is truly one of the most horrific cases we have seen."
At the press conference, Crump said Thompson's cell had become “a torture chamber.” “Someone has to be held accountable to his loved ones,” he stressed.
No charges
No charges have been filed at this stage, however.
According to local press reports, the county sheriff recently received the family and accepted the resignations of two of the jail’s officials. Contacted by French news agency AFP, the sheriff did not immediately react on Monday to the release of the autopsy report.
