A grieving family wants answers after a relative died in a Georgia jail after, in the words of their attorney, being "eaten alive by insects and bed bugs," reported WJHG.
"According to attorney Michael D. Harper, LaShawn Thompson was at the Fulton County Jail for three months before he was found dead in a jail cell," reported Zac Summers, Natasha Pollard, and Jordan Gartner. "Thompson was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta in June 2022. He was taken to the Fulton County Jail and placed in the psychiatric wing after officials determined he had mental issues."
“What Mr. Thompson was housed in was not fit for a diseased animal,” said Harper. “He did not deserve this ... Someone has to be held accountable for his death. The Fulton County Jail must be closed and replaced."
Officials at the jail have not commented.
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According to the report, Thompson's family "obtained records that stated detention officers and medical staff noticed his health deteriorating but did nothing to administer aid to him or help him," and "a detention officer reportedly refused to administer CPR because she 'freaked out' when finding Thompson’s body found bitten by bugs and insects."
Horror stories about detainee deaths in jails and prisons around the country have gained national attention in recent years, as a greater spotlight is placed on the conditions they have to endure.
In January, a lawsuit alleged that Autumn Harris, locked up in an Alabama jail for failure to appear in a misdemeanor theft case, died of pneumonia after nurses refused to give her antibiotics. In March, seven Virginia sheriff's deputies were charged for allegedly smothering Irvo Otieno to death while transferring him from the Henrico County Jail to a state mental facility. And earlier this month, another lawsuit claimed Joshua McLemore, taken to a jail in Jackson County, Indiana after pulling a nurse's hair while having a psychotic episode in the hospital, was thrown into solitary confinement, where guards let him starve himself to death.
