Tory Sanders
Tory Sanders, 28, died while in custody in Charleston, Missouri, in May 2017.
He suffered from mental health problems and in May 2017 he got lost while driving his car. Police took him to a county jail because they didn’t have enough staff to take him to the emergency room for a mental evaluation.
County jail employees pepper-sprayed Sanders, tased and brutalized him in his cell. One of the employees pressed his knee into Sanders’ neck and kept it there for up to three minutes. Sanders died in a few minutes.
Sanders’ family filed a lawsuit against the city and the police department, accusing them of using force. In April 2021, the city asked the family to accept $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit, but his relatives said they intend to continue to seek justice.
MASS MEDIA ABOUT THE CASE:
“This is not how you respond to a mental health crisis,” Nashville-based attorney Michael Hoskins said. “If someone is having a mental health crisis, you do not detain them and forcibly restrain them and tase them and brutalize them in a cell. This is not the way you treat people with mental health issues in America. This is a complete travesty.”
“One of the things we’ve been concerned about is there seems to be a prevailing attitude to dehumanize, particularly black males, to make it easier for people to attack them, to kill them, to brutalize them,” Clyde Poag of the NAACP says.
CASE STATUS:
The initiative group has requested the clarification from US President Joseph Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The initiative group believes it is important to fight against police brutality and, if necessary, will provide legal and financial assistance to the family of the victim.
Letter to Garland
Letter to Biden
