The family of a man with a history of mental illness who died in the custody of the Bibb County Jail says they are still waiting for answers about how he died.
Paula Platt says her son Stephen Fossett struggled with schizophrenia.
“Stephen was my firstborn child. He's the oldest of seven,” Platt recalled during a press conference Wednesday outside the Bibb County Jail. “Even though he had his trials and struggles, even when he was out and having his crisis, he would always say, ‘Mom, I'm okay because I pray.’”
Platt says Fossett had already been in and out of the Bibb County Jail before his detention in May. She suspects her son was in a schizophrenic episode when jailers used stun guns to subdue him. According to Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones, he later died at the hospital from cardiac arrest.
But since May, Platt says requests for more details have gone unanswered.
Now attorneys for the family are pressing for a release of all the documents related to Fossett’s death and full investigation by local prosecutors
“He was in their custody. He was their responsibility,” Attorney Muwali Davis said of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
“And then he ended up going from the jail to the hospital and being pronounced dead. There's something fundamentally wrong about that when he is their responsibility.”
Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones says he is still waiting for autopsy results from the Georgia Bureau Investigation, too.
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said they are investigating Fossett’s death as they would any other in custody death.
It’s been about two years since the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office inked a deal with local mental health care provider River Edge Behavioral Health for mental health first responders to work with patrol officers. River Edge workers also manage some aspects of mental health care in the Bibb County Jail.
