(Headline USA) The parents of a Georgia woman who died after she fell from a moving patrol car following her arrest demanded answers about their daughter’s death on July 29.
Brianna Grier, 28, suffered significant injuries on July 15 and died on July 21 at an Atlanta hospital.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said this week that the deputies who put Grier in the back of a patrol car to take her to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office failed to close the rear passenger-side door before driving away.
“[We are] trying to get answers of what really happened. That’s all we want to know. We ain’t trying to start no problem,” Marvin Grier, Brianna’s father, said during a news conference.
He was joined by Brianna’s mother and sister, Mary and Lottie Grier.
Grier was arrested after Hancock County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in Sparta, the GBI has said.
The deputies put Grier in the back of a patrol car, but she was not wearing a seatbelt, her hands were cuffed in front of her and the rear passenger-side door was never closed, according to GBI investigators.
The GBI has not said why deputies were called to the home or why Grier was arrested.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing her family, said Grier was taken into custody after a mental health crisis and assured the family that justice will be served.
“We won’t let them sweep your baby daughter’s death under the rug,” Crump said at the news conference on July 29 in downtown Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta.
Crump said his team will investigate what failures caused Grier to fall out of the car while it was moving and suffer a fatal brain injury that led to her being in a coma until she died six days later.
GBI agents have met with the Grier family multiple times since July 15 and have also had several conversations with them to provide updates on the investigation, spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in an email on July 29.
The agency plans to release body camera footage after agents review it with the family, she said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
