Family of man who died at Collin County jail meets with district attorney’s office
McKINNEY, Texas - It’s been more than a month since the death of a 26-year old man while in the Collin County jail, but the family of Marvin Scott the third says they are no closer to finding out what happened to their son.
Seven officers involved have been fired and an eighth has resigned – but still no charges for anyone involved. The case has been referred to the Texas Rangers who are investigating.
"I can’t even tell you what happened to my son. All I know is he arrived alive and ended up deceased," said LaSandra Scott, mother.
"No one in this community would accept 35 days of not knowing how and what happened to their loved one," said June Jenkins, Collin County NAACP president.
"There’s a lot that we know and a lot we don’t know," said Blerim Elmazi, civil rights attorney.
Scott was arrested for marijuana possession at the Allen outlet mall on March 14.
Allen police say Scott was acting erratically and was taken to the hospital. He was cleared by a doctor to be booked into jail about three hours later.
At the Collin County Detention Center – authorities say Scott began acting strangely and detention officers tried to put him on a restraint bed, put a spit mask over his head, and maced him. At some point he became unresponsive and later died.
His family says he’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but had not experienced a mental health episode in more than a year. They believe he was having one that day at the jail.
"It’s really taken a lot for me to just take this all in. First of all I’m shocked, very disappointed with Collin County," Scott said.
The family’s attorney is upset that no video from the incident has been released and it’s still unclear how each of the eight officers were involved.
"We still have no body cam, no video tape, nothing – this is not acceptable," Elmazi said. "We want to see these detention officers arrested, we want to see them charged. We want to see this case proceeding to grand jury with indictments, and these officers be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office says the investigation is ongoing.
The cause of death is still pending with the medical examiner’s office.
The family’s representatives say Monday’s meeting with prosecutors in the case was productive and while they got updates – they still have a lot of questions.
"Especially with no answers, we still don’t have answers. It’s really unacceptable," Scott said.
The family says their nightly protests at the Collin County jail will continue until the officers involved in Scott’s death are arrested. There’s no timeline on when the Texas Rangers will wrap up their investigation.
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