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York County jail video unveils timeline before death

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YORK COUNTY, S.C. — The York County Sheriff's Office showed a roughly 90-minute video that they said proves detention officers acted properly the night an inmate died after become combative and being restrained in a chair.

TV news stations had to turn off their cameras and reporters were asked to place their cellphones where they couldn't use them to record the surveillance video.

Sheriff's Office lawyer Kris Jordan said for security reasons, the internal surveillance camera video could not be broadcast.

On Oct. 18, Joshua Grose was found naked at his house on Mount Gallant Road, and charged with murder.

Sheriff's deputies said he had stolen an SUV in the River Pines neighborhood, then ran down and killed its owner Sandy Thomas, his mother, Sandra Grose, and severely beat his uncle, Curtis Sisk, before going back inside the house and taking a shower.

A day after his arrest, detention officers said Grose started behaving strangely, stripping naked and acting out. On the jail surveillance video, you could see him naked in his cell, moving oddly, bending over and gesturing.

Then later in the night, detention center officers said Grose tried to drown himself in the cell toilet.

Sheriff Bruce Bryant said his officers had to take the next step at that point.

"He was sticking his head in the commode and flushing it. He was hitting his head on the wall. He was out of control," Bryant said.

Grose was put in a restraint chair, which required up to eight officers because he struggled, kicking and spitting at them. He was also yelling that he wanted to die, and begging officers to kill him. He was hit several times with a Taser, and officers struck him with open hands to try and get him to let go of them, and sit properly in the restraint chair so he could be strapped in.

Officers noticed a knot on the back of Grose's head and a cut and called EMS. Medics arrived, but determined that Grose did not need stitches or further medical care. They left after a few minutes.

Grose began beating his head against the back of the chair, and was fitted with a protective helmet. He was put back in a cell, and was checked repeatedly because he was on suicide watch.

Jordan said when Grose was put back in a cell and still in the restraint chair, he started beating his head against the wall, still wearing the protective helmet.

In the surveillance video Grose can be seen swinging his head against the glass door of the cell, and raising his body out of the chair trying to hit the door. He did this dozens of times. At one point the helmet flew off and officers had to put it back on.

At one point, officers pulled the chair back out, checked Grose and made sure the restraints were still fastened to him. He continued to beat his head on the wall, until sometime after 2 a.m. when he stopped, and was no longer moving. Jordan said officers were concerned about the lack of movement and the checked on him once again.

At that time, he was unresponsive and not breathing. The same EMS crew was called back to the detention center less than an hour later.

The video showed EMS and detention officers doing CPR for more than 20 minutes, but they couldn't get a pulse.


The whole incident lasted from just after 1 a.m. until about 2:45 a.m. when Grose was wheeled out on a gurney.
Bryant called the actions of his officers heroic.

"Everything that they did was for the purpose of saving this man's life," he said.

After the long video, Bryant spoke in front of the TV news cameras, and issued a challenge to reporters.

"If any of you can show me where we did anything to cause this man's death, I challenge you, and you go out and report it," he said.

The York County coroner said Grose died from blunt-force head trauma; however, because the full autopsy report is not back yet, it's not known what specifically caused his head injury.

Bryant said his investigation found no fault in what his officers did in the early morning of Oct. 20.

Officers said that restraint chair is used on combative inmates often, sometimes four or five times a week.

The sheriff said he does plan to look at ways to stabilize the restraint chair, so inmates can't move it or tip it over.

They have also met with EMTs at the hospital about possible new ways to control combative inmates who refuse to calm down. Jordan said they are not medical professionals, so they cannot use tranquilizers on unruly inmates.

Jordan also answered allegations about another inmate death that happened in May 2006.

Jeffrey Waddell, 36, was put in a restraint chair and ended up dying from a seizure. His family sued the Sheriff's Office, claiming officers neglected to properly treat Waddell's epilepsy. They reached a settlement in the matter.

Jordan said Waddell routinely had seizures and they gave him his medication, but he often refused to take it. Jordan said he also faked seizures.

After Waddell's death, Bryant said it became policy that an inmate who has a seizure is immediately transported to the hospital.

A S.C. Law Enforcement Division investigation is still ongoing into the death of Grose. The detention officers who were there the night of his death are all still on the job.

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