A Clayton County man who died days after a courthouse struggle with sheriff’s deputies sent a text message to his girlfriend after the incident saying he was beaten, attorneys say.
Two Clayton County Sheriff’s deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave as a result of the altercation, pending completion of a GBI investigation of the death, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Brian Crisp told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Now, Kevin Guerrier’s family and supporters want answers for what they say was an unjust death.
“He was my only brother,” said Edwin Labossiere. “I just want justice.”
Guerrier, 25, went to the Clayton County courthouse on April 6 for a child support and temporary protective order hearing, according to court officials.
Sheriff Kem Kimbrough said deputies had to restrain Guerrier. At some point, Guerrier was handcuffed and taken from the courtroom, where he was somehow injured.
“The allegation was that he made an aggressive move or lunge toward the judge,” the family’s attorney, Mawuli Mel Davis, told reporters Friday at a news conference held outside the courthouse. “That did not happen.”
Guerrier’s girlfriend, Kenshimar Bethea, said she received a text message from him following the incident telling her that he’d been beaten and his head was hurting.
“That’s the last I heard from him,” she said.
Guerrier, who was on dialysis, suffered seizures and was taken to Southern Regional Hospital, where he reportedly lost brain function, authorities said.
Davis offered a preemptive defense to anyone who might challenge the story of the text message.
“He says he was beaten, then he has seizures and later dies. … That’s not a coincidence,” Davis said.
People gathered Wednesday outside Southern Regional and Friday outside the Clayton courthouse to call for justice for Guerrier.
“The persons involved, up to and including the sheriff, should be held accountable,” Clayton County activist Stanley Byars said at a Wednesday prayer vigil outside the hospital.
Guerrier’s childhood friend, Steve Reynolds, was more forgiving of Kimbrough.
“I wouldn’t blame it on the sheriff,” he said. “I blame the [deputies].”
Friday, Marcus Coleman, president of the Atlanta Chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, lamented Guerrier’s death in what he characterized as law enforcement violence against young black men.
“It’s unfortunate that a young man has to lose his life to highlight this problem,” Coleman said, pointing to two as-yet unresolved police-involved deaths.
In October, Joetavious Stafford, 19, was shot and killed outside the Vine City MARTA station by a MARTA police officer. In December, Ariston Waiters, also 19, was shot in the back by a Union City police officer.
Davis said his office is investigating the Guerrier incident, including filing a brief halting any action that might destroy or alter surveillance video recorded in the courtroom, but he has not indicated whether the family will seek legal action against the Sheriff’s Office.
“But there’s not an allegation that he was injured in the courtroom,” Davis said. “It’s what happened outside the courtroom that we’re concerned about.”
The GBI performed an autopsy on Guerrier’s body. GBI spokesman John Bankhead told the AJC the findings won’t be finalized for “a couple of weeks” and will defer to the Clayton District Attorney’s office to release the results of the final investigative report.
Kimbrough has initiated an internal investigation, which he said could take months to complete so as not to interfere with the GBI investigation.
The two deputies, he said, were placed on leave when he requested the GBI’s help last week.
In the meantime, Kimbrough says his office has made an attempt to reach out to Guerrier’s family.
“There’s no way I can know their pain,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But I’ll make every effort to know that when I sit down with them, I can do it with a clear conscience and clear heart that we’ve done everything we can to uphold the law.”
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