Georgia: Mentally Ill Man ‘Eaten Alive by Bed Bugs’ While Locked in a Putrid Cage for Months Over a Misdemeanor
When they found him, nurses were too scared to provide aid as his bug-ridden body horrified them.
In a horrifying case of negligence and cruelty, a mentally ill man in Georgia was found dead in his jail cell after being “eaten alive by insects and bed bugs,” according to the family’s attorney, Michael D. Harper. LaShawn Thompson, who suffered from mental health issues, was incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail for three months before his life came to this tragic end.
LaShawn Thompson’s arrest on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta in June 2022 should have been a routine matter, but instead, it turned into a nightmare. Upon determining that he had mental health issues, officials placed Thompson in the psychiatric wing of the jail. For the next several weeks, they failed to address the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which he was forced to live.
The family’s attorney, Harper, stated, “What Mr. Thompson was housed in was not fit for a diseased animal. He did not deserve this.” Despite the horrifying conditions, detention officers and medical staff were aware of Thompson’s deteriorating health but did nothing to help him or administer aid. According to the family, “They literally watched his health decline until he died.”
Even more appalling, a detention officer reportedly refused to administer CPR to Thompson, claiming she “freaked out” upon finding his bug-ridden body. “Someone has to be held accountable for his death. The Fulton County Jail must be closed and replaced,” demanded Harper.
Thompson’s family is now seeking a criminal investigation into his death and urging for the closure and replacement of the Fulton County Jail. The attorney highlighted the shocking conditions in Thompson’s cell during a news conference, describing them as “inexcusable and deplorable.”
In response to these allegations, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office stated that the manner and cause of Thompson’s death were listed as undetermined by the county medical examiner and that a full investigation was underway.
Thompson’s brother, Brad McCrae, emotionally conveyed his sibling’s humanity, mentioning his love for music and cooking, and traveling between Atlanta and Winter Haven, Florida. Upon seeing the images of his brother’s body and the conditions of his cell, McCrae said, “It was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that. Nobody should see that. But the first thing that entered my mind was Emmett Till.”
Till was a 14-year-old child who was lynched by the town’s people after being falsely accused of assaulting a white woman.
While the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office acknowledges the “dilapidated and rapidly eroding conditions” at the jail, they claim that Sheriff Patrick Labat continues to call for a new facility. However, this acknowledgment does little to assuage the pain and loss suffered by LaShawn Thompson’s family or to bring justice to a man who was subjected to unimaginable torment and ultimately died in a cage when he should have received help for his mental health issues.
Article posted with permission from Matt Agorist
