A mother whose son was having a seizure in his Tennessee apartment said in a federal lawsuit that police and paramedics subjected the 23-year-old to “inhumane acts of violence” instead of treating him, then covered up their use of deadly force.
The death of Austin Hunter Turner was one of more than 1,000 nationally that an investigation led by The Associated Press identified as happening after police officers used physical force or weapons that were supposed to stop, but not kill, people.
The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court, came after AP reporters shared police body-camera video they had unearthed with Turner’s parents, who didn’t know it existed. That footage made the family doubt the official conclusion that a drug overdose killed their son.
Citing the AP’s reporting and many of the details it disclosed, the lawsuit focused on how officers’ own video contradicted the police version of what happened inside Turner’s small apartment in the northeastern Tennessee city of Bristol.
Honestly I blame tv for giving people the wrong idea when it comes to seizures. Everyone has this image of a person failing widely and dangerously but that really isn’t how most seizures play out. I can understand not recognizing one if you’ve never seen it before but once you’ve seen one there’s no excuse. The medics on this scene should have known what was happening, no excuse there. They should have their certifications revoked.