ATLANTA — The family of a man who died after an accident at the Fulton County Jail says they plan to sue.
Samuel Lawrence’s family says other inmates were responsible for his death.
In a news conference Tuesday, the family’s attorney, Kenneth Muhammad, supplied Channel 2′s Veronica Griffin with several documents.
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One of them is a hand-written complaint his client sent to the District Court warning of the repeated abuse Lawrence was receiving at the jail by other inmates.
Their attorney says one of them eventually killed him.
“The county is responsible for the death of Samuel Lawrence,” Muhammad said. “The sheriff’s office failed in its obligation to protect him.”
Lawrence’s family gathered with Muhammad outside of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday morning hoping to right a wrong.
They say Lawrence died at the hands of another inmate and that he did not get the protection that he requested and deserved.
Lawrence’s family says he warned jail officials of the dangerous and violent actions of the other inmates several times, even sending a letter to the U.S. District Court’s Office prior to being found unresponsive in his jail cell on August 26.
“We see in the autopsy that Samuel died as a result of homicide. He was strangled to death,” Muhammad said.
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According to Muhammad, an inmate may have committed the actual murder, but the jail and its lack of protection played a role in it.
Muhammad said they will send notice to the county about their plans for a lawsuit in the coming days.
“We find that this was a death that should have been avoided. And we believe that, at best, the neglect from the sheriff’s office is a contributing factor to his death,” Muhammad said.
Griffin reached out to the Medical Examiner’s Office to validate the report and to the Fulton County Jail for a response, but she has not heard back at this time.
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