Rev. Al Sharpton to deliver eulogy at funeral for Georgia woman
By Rebekka Schramm
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ATLANTA, Georgia (WGCL) — Civil rights icon Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to deliver the eulogy Thursday at the funeral for Brianna Grier, a 28-year-old woman who died after an encounter with Hancock County deputies.
Following the funeral, the family’s attorney, famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, will lead parishioners on a march to the state capitol in a “call to action.”
Deputies arrested Grier on July 15 in the town of Sparta after her parents called 911 because their daughter, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had threatened to hurt herself and her twin girls.
Two responding deputies struggled to push Grier into the back of a patrol car, and less than a minute into the drive to the jail, Grier somehow fell out.
Initially, the sheriff’s office said she kicked the door open, but a review by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded that Grier “was placed in the backseat… with no seatbelt” and “the rear passenger-side door of the patrol car was never closed.”
Grier died six days later.
“I feel like it’s my fault because I called them,” said Grier’s mother Mary. “I trusted them to take care of her, not to harm her.”
“Just reckless conduct on behalf of these officers,” said Crump, “deliberate indifference at the hands of somebody who was having a mental health crisis.”
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office had no comment on Crump’s allegation.
Grier’s funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at West Hunter Street Baptist Church, located at 1040 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310.
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