North Carolina Sheriff Issues Apology to Family of Black Inmate Who Died After Being Restrained

A Forsyth County, North Carolina sheriff, apologized to the family of a Black man who was killed last year when he was restrained at a jail. The day following the apology, officials released videos showing the events leading to the man’s death.

“History has tied us together, forever,” Sheriff Bobby F. Kimbrough Jr. told John Neville’s son, Sean, and the Neville’s family lawyer, during a news conference. “I apologize again for what took place on that day, apologize to you and your family.” The footage of Neville’s death was ordered to be released by a Judge, after The New York Times and several news organizations, sued county officials to obtain the material.

The two videos from body-worn cameras show Neville on the ground of his cell, while a male detention officer tells him, “you’re OK, you’re OK. It looks like you had a seizure.” Later, officers hold his arms and legs down, and another officer says, “Watch yourself, he’s trying to bite.” Then, Neville, who is seen with a mask over his head, is handcuffed and strapped into a chair and transported to another cell. A second video shows how Neville was held, face down, by several officers as they try to remove his handcuffs. “I can’t breathe,” Neville says, to which an officer replies, “You’re breathing cause you’re talking,” telling him, “you need to relax.” Forsyth County district attorney Jim O’Neill describes the rest of the video as events in which Neville “would sustain injuries that would eventually cause him to lose his life.”

Neville was transported to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center after the jail staff noticed he wasn’t breathing. He died two days later, on Dec. 4. The autopsy revealed that he died of a brain injury and cardiopulmonary arrest, caused by “positional and compressional asphyxia during prone restraint.”

Sheriff Kimbrough has now offered to name part of the Forsyth County jail after Neville. Kimbrough said he believes renaming the unit after Neville would help memorialize him. “We’re doing it as a reminder to let them know that life is paramount in how we do business,” he said. All five former detention officers and the nurse who was present, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

In addition to possibly renaming the unit after Neville, the sheriff says the jail will now change how it treats inmates who need medical attention. “Your father has changed the way health care will be dispensed at the Forsyth County detention center as well as how it will be dispensed throughout this region,” Kimbrough told Neville’s son.