A Georgia woman has died after falling from a police vehicle while being arrested. Brianna Marie Grier, 28, was arrested on 15 July after Hancock County sheriff’s deputies received a call from her home in Sparta, Georgia, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a statement.
“Grier was arrested at the home,” the GBI said. “While deputies were taking Grier to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, Grier fell out of a patrol car and sustained significant injuries.”
Grier was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment but she died about a week later on July 21. “Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus asked the GBI’s regional investigate office in Milledgeville to investigate on July 15 following the initial incident,” the bureau said.
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It is unclear as to why Grier was taken into custody, but her family told WMAZ earlier that she had suffered a schizophrenic episode between Thursday 14 July and Friday 15 July. Her mother, therefore, called for help.
Deputies came to the home between 12 am and 1 am and put Grier in handcuffs before placing her in the back of their police vehicle.
Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus later visited Grier’s parents, Mary and Marvin Grier, and told them that Grier had been sent to the hospital after suffering a head injury. According to Primus, Grier had kicked one of the car doors open. She suffered two skull fractures, leaving her in a coma, WMAZ reported.
Grier’s mother doubts the sheriff’s account. “If she got out of the car, they had to have let her out of the car. That’s my interpretation because in a police car you can’t open the door from the inside so it had to have been opened from the outside,” Mary Grier said.
Officials have said that an autopsy will be conducted as the GBI continues its investigation.
