Children 1 | Name Natasha McKenna | |
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Full Name Natasha J.C. McKenna Born January 9, 1978 ( 1978-01-09 ) Cause of death Cardiac arrestExcited delirium | ||
Natasha McKenna (January 9, 1978 – February 8, 2015) was an African-American woman who died while in police custody. The event was notable because it was captured on video and is part of a growing number of incidents that are audio-visual representations of law enforcement that have contributed to discussions about African-Americans and their treatment by the police. While there were no charges against the deputies who tasered McKenna, the case is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation.
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Early life
McKenna was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and depression when she was 14 years old. She had a daughter who at the time of her death was 7 years old.
Event
McKenna, a 37-year old woman was being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center by the Fairfax County Police Department and Fairfax County Sheriff's Office in Fairfax County, Virginia, due to an outstanding warrant where she had attacked a police officer.
After initially cooperating with officials, there was a week-long delay in transporting McKenna back to Alexandria, where better assistance could be provided -- the resources (i.e., legal representation to petition for a mental health hold) were required to be provided by the warrant-issuing city. Over this period, police became concerned because her mental health deteriorated. Because of the previous assault charge against her, she was restrained with handcuffs, arms behind her back, her legs shackled, and a spit mask placed over her head. During a struggle that lasted over 45 minutes, McKenna, a 130 lb (59 kg) woman who was 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall, was tasered 17 minutes into a cell extraction. A sheriff's deputy used a stun gun to taser her four times because she wouldn't bend her knees to be put into a wheeled restraint chair. The specialized team that was called in to address her condition was attempting to ready her for transport to Alexandria, Virginia. The team was made up of six members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team ("SERT") and were dressed in full-body biohazard suits and gas masks.
Shortly after being tasered, McKenna suffered cardiac arrest and lost consciousness, but was resuscitated on the way to Inova Fairfax Hospital by emergency responders, was placed on life support, but was determined to be brain dead and was removed from life support after five days. She was pronounced dead on February 8, 2015.
Response
The Fairfax County Sheriff Department did an initial internal investigation, which was later assigned to the Fairfax County Police -- who are responsible for investigations of prisoner deaths. There were no criminal charges to the officers involved in McKenna's death.
The Virginia medical examiner's office made the determination that McKenna's cause of death was accidental, due to excited delirium, but that it was linked to the use of the stun gun.
Use of the stun gun was questioned as being an excessive use of force on a restrained person. The use of tasers was suspended by the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office in April 2015. The question of treating mentally ill prisoners was also a focus of the discussion about McKenna's death.
The Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team ("SERT") records its work doing cell extractions of inmates by video, a video which was released by the Fairfax County Sheriff's office.
There was a 51-page report that was released by the attorney who represents the commonwealth of Fairfax County, Ray Morrogh. A 110 page incident report was also made available.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other organizations based in social justice held a public protest in reaction to McKenna's death and the treatment of people of color by police.