In protest at Tarrant jail, Anthony Johnson Jr. family demands release of full video
The family of Anthony Johnson Jr. says they’re no longer asking Sheriff Bill Waybourn to release the full video of Johnson’s death in Tarrant County Jail custody. They’re demanding it.
Speaking at a protest at the front door of the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday afternoon, Johnson family attorney Daryl Washington said Waybourn told the family he would release the video if they wanted him to.
But a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said Waybourn told the family he would consider releasing the video if the family asked. The spokesperson said the sheriff has considered it and decided not to, citing an open investigation.
The demonstration was held by a small but vocal group of activists who marched downtown Thursday to protest recent deaths in the Tarrant County Jail.
Organized by local advocacy group United My Justice, the group of around 15 people met at Fort Worth City Hall just before noon and marched up Throckmorton Street to Belknap Street before ultimately arriving at the Tarrant County Jail at 100 N. Lamar St.
“We’re here today to make sure we get justice for these families of people who have died in the Tarrant County Jail,” said Donnell Ballard, founder of United My Justice. “It is up to us to make sure we hold our leaders accountable when it comes down to what is going on, and I am here to say today that we are not going to continue to allow this to happen.”
Protesters held signs stating that there have been over 60 deaths in the Tarrant County Jail during Sheriff Bill Waybourn’s tenure. Waybourn entered the office in January 2017.
“Enough is enough,” they chanted, as well as, “No justice, no peace.”
Sheriff’s Office data show that there were 63 inmate deaths between 2017 and April of this year, 11 of which were due to COVID and 32 from other natural or medical causes. Four were attributed to fentanyl-related overdoses, three were accidental, six were suicides and one was a homicide. One death was caused by gunshot wounds from a shootout with U.S. marshals, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Tarrant County resident Ashton Smith, 37, cited those numbers as his reason for braving the rain to protest on Thursday.
“As a Black person, seeing that, you know, that could be my family members, that could be someone else’s family member,” he said. “I don’t want to see people die in jail.”
Outside the county jail, Fort Worth resident Mark Kirkland mentioned the $1.2 million settlement the county recently approved in the case of a woman whose baby died after she gave birth in the jail, as well as a new elevator in the jail that was approved by county commissioners earlier this month.
“We don’t need a new elevator, we need justice,” said Kirkland, 61. “We have an issue also with the Tarrant County Commissioners Court. They have no authority over Bill Waybourn. He runs amok.”
Fellow protester Teena James, of Fort Worth, called for the release of Kai’Yere Campbell, a 21-year-old inmate who has the mental capacity of a child due to a developmental disability.
“He’s being treated like a common criminal,” James said.
Johnson’s father describes seeing the video for the first time
Johnson’s family arrived with Washington as protesters spoke into a megaphone outside the jail entrance.
Speaking to members of the media, Washington mentioned Chasity Corday Bonner, a 35-year-old woman who died in Tarrant County Jail custody on Monday.
“You would think after all that this family has been through, that the sheriff’s department would have implemented the proper steps to make sure that no one else dies,” he said.
They had just come from the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, where Johnson’s father, Anthony Sr., watched the full video for the first time.
“It’s bad,” Anthony Johnson Sr. told the Star-Telegram. “When they release the video, you’ll see. It’d be something for you to see. It’s just inhumane. My son didn’t deserve that.”
Johnson’s sister Chanell said she could not bring herself to watch the video again.
“It’s one of those things where you may have nightmares over somebody you didn’t even know,” she told the Star-Telegram. “That’s how bad this video is.”
Johnson’s family left after speaking with the media, but the protesters continued on to the Sheriff’s Office at 200 Taylor St., where they chanted for around 20 minutes inside the entrance vestibule. The inner doors had been locked.
When a woman came to try and enter the building, she commented to protesters, to which activist James could be overheard saying, “We’re tired, too. The only difference is we had someone die in there.”
Johnson’s family and friends held his funeral on Friday.
What does unreleased footage of Anthony Johnson Jr.’s death show?
At Thursday’s protest, Washington said the Sheriff’s Office didn’t publicly release the worst part of the video.
About five minutes of surveillance and cellphone video showing the April 21 altercation with detention officers that led to Johnson’s death was released by the Sheriff’s Office on May 16. That video shows a large detention officer kneel on Johnson’s back for about 90 seconds after Johnson, a 31-year-old Marine veteran, was already handcuffed following a struggle with other officers. Johnson was heard on the video saying he couldn’t breathe.
The remaining approximately 10 minutes of cellphone video shows Johnson being slapped after he became unresponsive, Washington said. It also shows a nurse not taking Johnson’s condition seriously, he said.
“They were saying a lot of things but they weren’t really trying to help him,” Washington told the Star-Telegram.
The family was first shown the full video on May 16 at the District Attorney’s Office, but they haven’t been given a copy.
Before the partial video was released, Sheriff Waybourn fired Rafael Moreno, the officer who knelt on Johnson’s back, and Lt. Joel Garcia, a jail supervisor who recorded the altercation on a cellphone. The two officers were later reinstated to their jobs due to civil service rules not being followed at the time they were fired, one of their attorneys said. They are currently on administrative leave.
Members of Johnson’s family have said they also want to see medical staff disciplined in connection with his death.
Johnson’s mother, Jacqualyne Johnson, told the Star-Telegram on May 21 that the unreleased footage shows a lapse of up to eight minutes between the time that jailers found her son to be unresponsive and the moment medical staff began to give him resuscitation measures.
She saw the medical workers “smack him and try to rub his chest to make sure he wasn’t faking. He was lifeless, like a rag doll. I can’t express it any other way,” she said. “Even the correctional officers should have turned him over to give him CPR when they realized he was not responding. They did nothing.”
The JPS Health Network has approximately 240 full-time employees providing medical care in the county jail, according to a John Peter Smith Hospital spokesperson.
A JPS spokesperson initially told the Star-Telegram on May 17, “Although we do remove individuals from the schedule while we conduct a thorough review of these incidents, there has been no determination that disciplinary action is warranted in connection with Mr. Johnson’s care.”
After followup questioning, the health network said that JPS representatives had not seen the video footage to which the family was referring.
Results of an autopsy are pending to determine Johnson’s cause and manner of death.
Johnson was arrested by Saginaw police while he was experiencing a mental health crisis two days before his death. Johnson suffered from schizophrenia.
This story was originally published May 30, 2024 at 1:22 PM.
