A Dollar General customer called the police when they saw a man with his chest in the air outside of the store.
According to a lawsuit filed in November, Jeremy Lee Thompson died hours after being sent two police officers to help him.
Thompson told the officers that he was having a stroke. They ignored his medical needs and arrested him after he was accused of having an open container of alcohol in his car.
The complaint states that the officers took Thompson to the jail instead of taking him to the emergency room.
Thompson's grandmother, Verlon Elizabeth Thompson, is suing the two officers, saying they deprived her grandson of his civil rights and caused his death by not seeking medical care before he was brought to jail.
They are accused of violating the admission procedures of the jail.
The attorneys for the two officers and the police department were contacted by the news.
One of the officers named in the lawsuit does not work for the department anymore and the other is still an officer, according to the chief. He said they were both good officers.
Jon Goldfarb, one of the attorneys representing Thompson's grandmother, said in a statement that he was looking forward to reviewing the officers' body camera footage.
It will show that the officers should have called for medical help instead of taking Mr. Thompson to jail.
According to the complaint, dispatch told the police officers of what the Dollar General customer observed, including how they saw him clutching his chest and mouthing "help me"
Thompson was arrested for public intoxication after they claimed an open container of alcohol was in his car.
Thompson was found to have no alcohol in his body when blood tests were taken later, but the officers never conducted a field sobriety test.
His feet were dragging on the ground as the two officers supported his weight when he arrived at the jail.
Thompson was restrained in a chair and not taken to an emergency room according to the complaint.
Thompson started shaking and sweating after about an hour and a half and the jail staff became concerned. The emergency medical services were dispatched around 9 pm.
The complaint states that first responders gave Thompson a tranquilizer and suspected he was suffering from an overdose.
Thompson was taken to the emergency room at Wiregrass Medical Center where he was diagnosed with a heart attack.
The nurse wrote down in her notes that Thompson stopped breathing and chest compressions were unsuccessful.
According to the lawsuit, he died at the ER doctor's office.
The complaint states that the coroner expressed concern over how Thompson was treated during his investigation.
Why was an individual who was reported as holding his chest and mouthing the words help me not be medically cleared before being placed in the county jail? According to the complaint, the coroner wrote that this may have been a violation of the jail admission procedures.
According to the complaint, Thompson's cause of death was listed as "toxic effects of methamphetamine"
According to the website, methamphetamine can cause damage to the heart and increase the chance of a heart attack.
Most people don't know that overdoses are not the only cause of death when taking drugs.
The complaint states that if Thompson had been taken to the emergency room immediately after he was seen at the Dollar General, he would have survived.
According to the complaint, the jail policy requires arrestees who seem dangerously intoxicated to be evaluated by a doctor before being taken to jail.
The officers are accused of violating Thompson's 14th Amendment rights by ignoring his medical needs.
A trial by jury is what it wants to recover damages for.
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