Nearly a quarter-million people have signed a petition asking Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to launch an investigation into the January death of a man with Down syndrome killed during a struggle with police at a Frederick, MD movie theatre.
Seven months after Ethan Saylor died in police custody, the man’s friends and family
have collected over 233,400 signatures asking Gov. O’Malley for
an independent investigation “so the facts can come out and
those responsible can be appropriately prosecuted.”
Saylor, 26, passed away earlier this year after his larynx was
crushed during a confrontation that ended with three off-duty
sheriff’s officers attempting to subdue the man. Saylor was
attending a screening of the film “Zero Dark Thirty” and
reportedly refused to leave at the conclusion of the movie. When
the deputies attempted to move him, Saylor’s caregiver warned
that touching the man would make things worse. But according to
witnesses, he was thrown to the ground and struggled under the
weight of the three officers before he died.
“I never thought that anything like this would happen in my
town, let alone to my brother,” his sister, 23-year-old Emma
Saylor, told Yahoo News.
The coroner’s office ultimately ruled Mr. Saylor’s death a
homicide by asphyxiation, but a grand jury put together in
response elected not to indict any of the men for their role in
his passing. The Department of Justice has since launched a probe
of their own to see if Saylor’s civil rights were violated under
the American with Disabilities Act, but now nearly a
quarter-of-a-million people have signed their name asking for the
governor to give the case another try.
“His senseless death was ruled a homicide, but the Frederick
County Sheriff and Prosecutor neglected to conduct a thorough
investigation of the facts and the grand jury refused to indict.
Ethan’s death was senseless and entirely avoidable and we need an
independent, completed, and thorough investigation as to what
happened that night,” a copy of the petition reads on
Change.org.
The 200,000-plug who have signed on are asking for Gov. O’Malley
to make sure cops within the state are better prepared to handle
situations with the developmentally disabled.
“Part of the problem is that police officers in Maryland
aren’t trained enough in how to deal with developmentally
disabled people like my brother. I think training is an important
next step in making sure that what happens to my brother never
happens to anyone else,” Emma Saylor says on the Change.org
page.
“We obviously want better training for law enforcement and
first responders,” Sara Weir, vice president of advocacy for
the National Down Syndrome Society, told Yahoo.
“From our perspective as a national organization, we need to
know what happened that night so we make sure something like this
never happens again,” she added.
Republished from: RT