A mother whose son suffered an epileptic seizure in his Tennessee home said in a lawsuit in federal court that police officers and paramedics subjected the 23-year-old to “inhumane acts of violence” instead of treating him and then covered up the use of deadly force.
The death of Austin Hunter Turner was one of more than 1,000 nationwide An investigation led by the Associated Press found that this happened after police officers used physical force or weapons designed to stop people, not kill them.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court this week after AP reporters shared Police bodycam video they dug up with Turner’s parents unaware of it. This footage caused the family to doubt the official conclusion that their son died of a drug overdose.
The lawsuit cites AP reporting and many of the details published there, focusing on the fact that the officers’ video contradicts the police version of what happened in Turner’s small apartment in Bristol, northeast Tennessee.
Officers said they physically restrained Turner and shocked him with a taser because he resisted paramedics who tried to help him.
The complaint states that from the moment officers arrived, Turner was “treated as a suspect, not a patient in a medical emergency.” “Turner did not resist arrest or engage in combative behavior. He did not disobey orders; he was having a seizure.”
Multiple messages left for Bristol Police Chief Matt Austin, Fire Chief Michael Carrier and Mayor Vince Turner were not returned Thursday and Friday. The lawsuit accuses the city and several police officers and firefighters of violating Turner’s civil rights.
For Turner’s mother, Karen Goodwin, the lawsuit is a final chance for justice for her son, known to everyone as Hunter. Since that night in August 2017, she and her husband, Brian, believed police and blamed her son for his own death. Now she wants those who were there to be held accountable. They should have realized her son was having a medical emergency, she said, and she’s angry because she believes they lied.
“We always trusted the police,” Goodwin said. “We didn’t question authority, so when they told us he died of a drug overdose, we believed them.”
The highlighted case a key finding of the AP-led investigation: There is a lack of accountability in the justice system after fatal police actions that do not involve shootings. From the patrol officers at the scene and their supervisors to prosecutors and medical examiners, the system protects officers from scrutiny. Some other deaths the investigation documented reflect another reality of policing in America: The fraying of the country’s social safety net can leave officers in violent situations with people who need mental health treatment or treatment for drug addiction.
In Tennessee, it was difficult to find a lawyer. Goodwin said she contacted 20 attorneys before a Nashville law firm agreed to take her case. Lawyers know there are high hurdles to even bringing a case to court, including “qualified immunity” that protects officers from lawsuits.
And this case was even more complicated. Damages claims are subject to a statute of limitations, which in cases like Turner’s in Tennessee is one year, according to Dominick Smith, one of the mother’s attorneys. Although Turner died nearly seven years ago, Goodwin’s lawyers believe the case was a cover-up. They argue that the time limit should therefore not begin to run until AP reporters share the police video with the family in August 2023, as part of their investigation with FRONTLINE (PBS) and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University.
A judge will decide whether the lawsuit can proceed, said Christopher Slobogin, director of the criminal justice program at Vanderbilt University Law School.
If family members can prove a reasonable person couldn’t have known at the time how an injury or death occurred, a judge could start the time limit if they learned the full picture less than a year ago, he said. Defendants will likely argue that the statute of limitations has run out because the family has known about the death since 2017.
“You look at what is fair under the circumstances,” said Slobogin, a Tennessee state law expert who is not involved in the case.
The medical emergency began when Turner suddenly collapsed in his apartment. His girlfriend called Goodwin and said she didn’t know if he was breathing. Goodwin said to call 911 and rushed over.
When she arrived, Goodwin found her son gasping for air on the linoleum floor of his kitchen. She told paramedics he had had several epileptic seizures in the past.
Shortly afterward, police and firefighters stormed the apartment. They thought Turner would resist, but Goodwin said that was not the case – his body was twitching as a result of the seizure.
The bodies of the police and firefighters largely blocked the mother’s view, but she could hear them yelling at her son to stop resisting. One officer shocked him with a taser.
The team pushed Turner face down on a gurney, in what is known as the prone position, which can dangerously restrict breathing. A few minutes later, he was strapped face down on a gurney again. He stopped breathing before they took him to Bristol Regional Medical Center.
In his autopsy report, the medical examiner said Turner died of “multiple drug intoxication” and named Suboxone, a drug used to help people wean themselves off opioids, as well as the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The medical examiner also repeated the police’s official version. The AP investigation found that the medical examiners who determine the official cause of death when police restraints occur often do not associate it with violence, but blame it on accidents, drug use or pre-existing health problems.
Three experts who reviewed case files for AP said Turner did not die of a drug overdose. Instead, they said Bristol police made serious errors that contributed to Turner’s death, including holding him facedown.
Goodwin said something didn’t seem right about that night from the start. Despite her doubts, Goodwin believed for years that emergency responders did everything possible to save her son. That changed after she saw the video.
Goodwin was stunned. She noticed that the officers didn’t seem to realize they had been dispatched to a medical response. Instead of taking Turner away in an ambulance at the end, police and paramedics spent six minutes describing the violence.
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This story is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by The Associated Press in cooperation with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and FRONTLINE (PBS) programs. The investigation includes the Lethal Restraint interactive story, database And the documentary “Documenting Police Use Of Force”, which premiered on PBS on April 30. ___
The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation for criminal justice coverage. This story also received support from the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights at Columbia University in cooperation with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___
Contact AP’s global investigative team at (email protected) or https://www.ap.org/tips/
