‘I did not throw you!’ Texas inmate hospitalized after officer shoves him, video shows
He was supposed to serve one day in jail for public intoxication. Two days later, 30-year-old Chester Jackson was on life support, according to ABC 7.
Jackson’s family’s attorney U.A. Lewis said Jackson was arrested on April 19 in front of his home and taken to Burleson County Jail in Caldwell, Texas, NewsOne reported. When his mother went to pick him up the next day, officials would not release him.
Two days later, Jackson’s family says they were informed that he was in an Austin hospital on life support, KAGS reported.
Jackson’s condition is now stable, but he has a “visible wound on the outside of his head” and is “not yet talking,” according to KAGS .
On Tuesday, video emerged of a Burleson County police officer shoving a handcuffed Jackson. According to KBTX which first obtained the video, the video shows the officer “throwing Jackson” then “stating, instead, that he fell,” Jackson’s lawyer says. Jackson “bounces off a metal bed and appears to hit his head against a toilet,” KBTX reported.
The officer has been placed on administrative leave and the Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation, according to ABC 7. The officer involved in the incident has not been publicly named.
“The Burleson County Sheriff’s Office is dedicated to doing what is right, legal, and ethical,” Sheriff Thomas Norsworthy said in a statement, provided to KAGS. “The Burleson County Sheriff’s Office is committed to conducting a full and complete investigation into the actions and circumstances that have resulted in this current condition of Mr. Jackson, and to keeping Mr. Jackson’s family informed.”
A day after the release of the body cam footage, a newly released 911 call is raising eyebrows.
The call took place on April 21 after Jackson was taken to Cross Creek Psychiatric Hospital and before he was transferred to an Austin medical facility, according to KWHI. The call was between Cross Creek and 911 operators in Austin and details how Jackson was sedated and “put in a hold” after becoming “agitated,” the station reported.
During the event, Jackson stopped breathing and nurses performed CPR, according to KAGS. Paramedics then transferred him to St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, according to KBTX.
Lewis, Jackson’s attorney, says she has not been provided any information about Jackson’s arrest, The Eagle reported.