Posted on 07/31/2023 5:07:40 PM PDT by rod5591
Police officers allegedly stood by and watched for 15 minutes as a man who relapsed on heroin drowned in the Tennessee River after fleeing from them, according to a newly filed lawsuit.
Kimberly Williams-Clabo claims her son, Mika Wheeler Clabo, would still be alive if it weren’t for the alleged negligence of the Knoxville Police Department, which encountered him “acting erratically” on the morning of July 25, 2022.
Police said that when they approached Clabo, 30, who struggled with a heroin addiction, he ran from them and jumped into the river, where he got caught on vines and drowned.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Williams-Clabo said the four officers at the scene “refused to make a single rescue attempt and inexplicably warned off private rescuers, resulting in the victim’s death by drowning.”
She is suing the officers, as well as the police chief, for violating her son’s civil rights and for wrongful death.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
No problem, I understand your response completely, in the context you meant it, chickensoup...
I appreciate you.
WOW !!! That’s something that will be a mind image for ever.
What an awful experience for you
You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Nobody in their right mind would jump in that river under those conditions. People who engage in risky activities like drug addiction have a tendency to die because of it.
I know, thanks for saying so. Just reading that story about the family suing made me remember why I understood immediately why those cops didn’t shed their equipment and jump in.
The weird thing is, I don’t remember anyone saying anything at all while all that went on. I could be me, but I just feel there was near complete silence as ships crew who could observe it just watched without comment. Or perhaps I zoned it out.
It has been 45 years or so, and I don’t know how accurate I am remembering it, but I do have a vivid mental image that he he had short, light colored hair plastered across his head and a completely white face, so I assume they must have removed his helmet I guess. But I just remember it coming bobbing above and below the water for a long time.
It didn’t affect me in that way, the way some people may be affected, and thank goodness for that. I dream a lot constantly, every night (and always have) and it would be terrible if THAT found its way into my thoughts. I kind of enjoy dreaming, and I would hate that.
I can see why, if someone was traumatized enough to have that happen to them, that they would turn to alcohol and drugs to eradicate it.
Makes me shudder to think of that.
I think that something like that would stick in My mind forever.
BTW, Thank You for Your Service !!!
My debt is owed to my country (or at least the one I signed up to serve) for giving me the opportunity to serve in what used to be a meritocratic institution, but also because in my case, I got more out of it than they put into it!
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