TARRANT COUNTY (WBAP/KLIF News ) – Two employees at the Tarrant County Jail have been fired following an inmate’s death.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office released a five-minute video and additional details about what led up to 31-year-old Anthony Johnson Junior’s passing on April 21.
TSCO said Johnson died from a medical emergency after being pepper sprayed during a fight with officers in his cell.
The Office said the altercation occurred when officers approached Johnson’s cell and he allegedly refused to exit during a routine check for contraband.
During a Thursday news conference, Sheriff Bill Waybourn played video showing former jailer Rafael Moreno kneeling on Johnson’s back for about 90 seconds during an intense altercation near the second-floor railing.
Johnson was placed in handcuffs after almost 10 jailers struggled for almost three minutes to restrain him. As Moreno continued to kneel on Johnson, he can be heard saying he can’t breathe.
Johnson was pepper sprayed, eventually became unresponsive and later died. “It was a very dangerous situation,” said Waybourn.”He was pepper sprayed because nothing else was working, but it seemed to have no effect.”
Sheriff Waybourn said Moreno was fired because he should not have kneeled on Johnson after he was handcuffed.
Lt. Joel Garcia, Moreno’s supervisor, was fired because he did not properly respond to the “urgency of the situation” and made several mistakes in an attempt to seek medical attention for Johnson, said Waybourn.
“It’s okay to put a knee in the back until you get them restrained and what you do after that is immediately put them in the recovery position immediately…immediately….and that didn’t happen,” said Waybourn.
The sheriff said the terminations were the direct result of accountability.
“Some individuals that we terminated were being held accountable because they violated policy and it was below the standards of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and that would have been under any use of force circumstances where they displayed that,” he said.
Johnson had been initially arrested in Saginaw on April 19 during a schizophrenic episode. His family told local media outlets they tried unsuccessfully to get him into a mental health facility.
They’re demanding answers and transparency from Tarrant County and its sheriff’s office in connection to their loved one’s death.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to release a cause of death.
The Texas Rangers are still investigating the incident. The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas said they’re representing one of the officers who was fired and plan to appeal.
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