Breonte Lamar Johnson-Davis Sr.’s family has been waiting for more than three months for answers. His parents, family, friends, and members of the community have called for justice after he died just one day after becoming unconscious in police custody.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an independent investigation into the officers' actions on the early morning hours of November 1. That investigation was later reviewed by the state attorney’s office.
On Tuesday morning, Police Chief Scott Tyler announced those results. “They have concluded that our officers acted reasonably and that their actions were justified that night,” Tyler said. “They concluded that our officers’ actions had nothing to do with his death.”
Outside the police station, his mother called the investigation a bunch of lies. “I want badges. I want justice for my boy. He was not an incident. He was not a situation. His name was Breonte and I gave him that name,” Tracey Washington said.
Police officers were called to a Circle K in Palmetto during the early morning hours of November 1.
“I just want to report a disturbance here. I had a man come into my store acting very strange. He was yelling,” a 911 caller said. “I’m not entirely sure what it was, but he was overdosing from the looks of it. He was freaking out.”
Johnson-Davis ran out the store and into the street just before officers arrived.
One officer can be seen in body camera footage telling Johnson-Davis, “Hey calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down. Stop man, stop man.”
He was tased twice before officers were able to handcuff him.
“Stop pulling away, you’re going to get it again,” the same officer said.
Paramedics arrived on the scene. “Hey listen to me, stop flopping around so I can get your vitals,” one paramedic said.
Moments later, the other paramedic can be heard saying, “Check for a pulse … flip him now.”
One officer began to do chest compressions while the other took the handcuffs off him.
Paramedics were finally able to revive him once he was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Johnson-Davis died, however, the following day at Manatee Memorial Hospital.
“The manner of death was accidental. He ingested illicit drugs. He was under the influence of methamphetamine and a powerful synthetic stimulant,” Tyler said Tuesday, reading from the medical examiner’s report. “His immediate cause of death was multiple organ failure following resuscitation from cardiac arrest.”
But his family disagrees.
“Breonte’s death was preventable and it was caused by the tasing,” said ANSWER Coalition Suncoast activist Ruth Beltran, as she stood by Johnson-Davis’ family.
His mother, sharing the vow she made to her son as he was dying that she would get justice, plans to go to the U.S. Department of Justice next.
