Global Courant 2023-04-13 21:49:16
Lashawn Thompson was reported to have been eaten alive by insects in his Atlanta prison cell while awaiting trial for a simple battery charge in June 2022, his family’s attorney said.
Now the 35-year-old’s family is calling for the closure of the Fulton County jail and a criminal investigation into Thompson’s death.
“People like him are neglected. His parents are dead. No wife, no kids. His family isn’t from Atlanta, so they weren’t here when he was here to keep up with him. But they got the call that he had died in jail,” attorney Michael Harper of The Harper Law Firm told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
Prison officials placed Thompson in the psychiatric ward after determining he had schizophrenia, Harper said. The lawyer shared several extremely explicit photos of Thompson and the dirt in which he allegedly died in the detention center in a press release Wednesday.
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The family of Fulton County jail inmate Lashawn Thompson says he died after reportedly being eaten alive by insects and bed bugs in his cell. (harper law firm)
“The family approved photographs…which show that the prison cell Mr. Thompson was in was not suitable for a deceased animal,” Harper wrote. “He didn’t deserve this. Someone needs to be held responsible for his death. The Fulton County Jail needs to be closed and replaced.”
Three months after being placed in the psychiatric ward, Thompson was “found in a filthy jail cell after being eaten alive by detectives and bed bugs,” the press release said.
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Public documents obtained by Harper’s law firm apparently show that detention officers and medical staff at the prison noticed Thompson’s deterioration — including an infestation of bed bugs and lice on his torso — while he was alive, but did nothing to help him.
There were “plans” to transfer him to another ward of the prison that never got off the ground when they finally found Thompson dead in the cell, Harper claimed.
Thompson’s family is asking for the Fulton County jail to be closed and an investigation into the 35-year-old’s death. (Google Maps)
“They literally watched his health deteriorate until he died. When his body was found, one of the detention officers refused to administer CPR because, in her words, she ‘panicked,'” Harper wrote in the press release.
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Thompson’s family is expected to speak out at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
“They’re shocked,” Harper said.
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The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a question from Fox News Digital. Sheriff Pat Labat has been pushing for a new detention facility due to overcrowding that could cost researchers up to $2 billion, according to 11 Alive News.
“Today we have nearly 600 people sleeping on the floor and the prison is held together with duct tape and chewing gum,” Labat said in February, according to 11 Alive. “If you have people resourceful enough to strip the wires from some outlets and start using the materials there to build and make homemade knives, we need to create a better environment.”
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
