Seven Collin County sheriff’s officers in Texas were fired on Thursday in connection with Marvin D. Scott III’s death, a 26-year-old Black man who died hours after being detained in the county jail last month.
According to Newsone, Scott was arrested on March 14th for marijuana possession and booked the same day after cops found him sitting next to a small amount of weed at an outlet mall.
Scott was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and his family believes that officers failed to recognize his ongoing mental health crisis choosing instead to criminalize him for minor drug possession immediately.
Scott was booked in the Collin County jail after being taken to a nearby hospital. Officers claim they observed Scott exhibiting “strange behavior” in the booking area, which prompted them to pepper-spray him and use a “pain compliance technique” that the Dallas Morning News said, “many law-enforcement agencies abstain from using.”
The officers then covered his head with a spit hood, and he eventually became unresponsive. Scott was then transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, and the official cause of his death is pending.
Lee Merrit, who represents the Scott family, said Marvin’s prior arrests related to his mental health should have compelled officers to keep him hospitalized instead of locking him up.
“When officers are aware of [someone’s mental health history], they’re supposed to take certain precautions,” Merritt said last month. “They were not taken here, and they’re often not taken, and it results in unnecessary death.”
