Lisa Edwards begged for her life. But instead of helping the 60-year-old disabled Knoxville, Tennessee, woman, police arrested her for trespassing after she refused to leave the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center when the doctors discharged her.
Edwards told police she should couldn’t breathe. They said it was “an act.” One snarky cop even offered her a cigarette.
In video footage released by the Knoxville Police Department, Edwards can clearly be heard slurring her words, and yet cops forcibly pushed her into the back of a police van, where she became unresponsive and died the next day of a stroke.
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Despite what the video shows, The Washington Post reports that the Knox County district attorney general’s office decided not to file criminal charges against the officers.
The Post reports an autopsy conducted on Feb. 7 found that Edwards died of “natural causes.”
“Specifically, Ms. Edwards was not beaten by the police, she was never subdued, there was no physical struggle between law enforcement and Ms. Edwards, and there was no restraint asphyxia,” a statement from the district attorney’s office read, according to the Post.
Please be advised. The video is graphic and difficult to watch:
August Boylan, who is married to Edwards’ son, Timothy Boylan, 43, told USA TODAY, “It was very clear she couldn’t use her left side. Her speech got slurred as things progressed. That's one of the first signs you see with a stroke. To me, it’s very evident,” August Boylan is a registered nurse.
"They really didn’t do anything to help her," she said. "They were mocking her, swearing at her."
Edwards began using a wheelchair while living in Rhode Island and suffered from a stroke that paralyzed her left side in 2019. She had only recently been living in Knoxville.
On the day she was arrested, she’d been discharged in her wheelchair with her suitcase still in hand.
The video shows officers asking her repeatedly to step into the police van and Edwards telling them repeatedly that she “can’t.” She can also be heard asking for her inhaler. Around 10 minutes later, one of the officers finally hands it to her.
When another officer arrives, the callousness becomes tangible.
“We’ve already spent too much time on you… You’re going to get up here in this van, and you’re going to go to jail. We’re done with this.”
After Edwards is put into the van, the police stop a car on the way to the police station. When the officer who was driving goes to the back of the police vehicle to check on her, he finds her unconscious. The officers call for an ambulance, and she’s returned to the hospital.
Edwards’ son told the Post that the day before his mother died, she’d called him and left a message. “Please help me,” she’d said.
In a statement obtained by USA TODAY, Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel said he was “disturbed and embarrassed” after seeing the footage.
"My expectation is that our officers treat every person they encounter, regardless of the context or situation, with respect, dignity, and basic decency… We should also take pride in helping those who need it."
The four officers involved in Edwards’ arrest, Sgt. Brandon Wardlaw, officer Adam Barnett, officer Timothy Distasio, and transportation officer Danny Dugan, are currently on administrative leave pending a review.
