Cuyahoga County Jail Transfer Ends With Death at MetroHealth
www.themarshallproject.org
Officials said Tasha Grant’s heart stopped from the restraint. A special prosecutor is reviewing the actions of hospital workers and a deputy.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley has named a special prosecutor to review the death of a woman physically restrained by law enforcement at MetroHealth Medical Center in May.

The move comes after the county medical examiner, Thomas Gilson, ruled 39-year-old Tasha Grant’s death a homicide. Officials said the physical restraint caused Grant’s breathing to slow and, ultimately, her heart to stop.

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Grant’s death. County officials declined to offer any additional information.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250926114816/https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/09/25/cleveland-death-restraint-sheriff-metrohealth

  • logicbomb@lemmy.world
    17·
    2 days ago

    Grant, whose legs had been amputated years earlier, complained of chest pain after 15 days in the Cuyahoga County jail. An ambulance transported her to MetroHealth Medical Center on May 2.

    Three days later, at the hospital, MetroHealth officers said Grant “threw herself onto the floor” and “would not cooperate.”

    Medical staff requested assistance. Three MetroHealth officers and a sheriff’s deputy grabbed Grant’s arms, waist and torso. Medical staff injected a drug into Grant’s right arm to subdue her as she lay on her stomach with an officer’s hands on her back.

    MetroHealth officers said they left the room after the sheriff’s deputy handcuffed Grant to the bed. She was found unresponsive 14 minutes later at 5:52 p.m., according to the autopsy.

    The medical examiner identified internal bleeding in muscles caused by pressure placed on Grant’s neck, and video of the restraint showed Grant’s chest and abdomen against the side of the hospital bed as pressure was applied to her backside.

    Christopher Harris, a spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the homicide ruling does not imply wrongdoing.

    Everything about this seems sloppy, from the police, to the medical, to the reporting.

    How is injecting a drug a way to subdue a person in custody? That’s fucked up.

    The article says the police restrained her by her arms, waist, and torso, but the autopsy says it was pressure on her neck. Something isn’t adding up.

    And while it’s true that homicide doesn’t always imply wrongdoing, for example, if you kill in self defense, I think the situation is a little different when you kill somebody in custody who doesn’t behave the way you want them to.

    • KingArnulf@lemmy.world
      11·
      2 days ago

      How is injecting a drug a way to subdue a person in custody? That’s fucked up.

      Allow me to introduce you to the practice of police restraint by ketamine. No longer will police simply kneel on your neck and suffocate you. Now they will say you are experiencing excited delirium and have a medic take a wild guess at your weight and inject you with ketamine to ‘calm you down.’