Marie Darden misses her nephew.
It’s been six months since Bryan Bostic died in the custody of Inglewood city police. Darden said she and other family members still struggle to get a good night’s sleep.
“This has torn our family into pieces,” Darden said. “I miss him so much. His daughter misses him.”
Bostic, a 37-year-old Compton man, died on March 10 after police arrested him during a traffic stop at Nutwood Street and Hillcrest Boulevard in Inglewood. Paramedics were called twice that night, once to the scene of his arrest and again when he was found unresponsive in the back seat of a police vehicle outside the city jail.
Information about the events surrounding Bostic’s death has trickled out over the intervening months, including a statement from Mayor James Butts, a video of Bostic’s arrest and a report from the LA County Medical Examiner, who determined he died by accident from the effects of methamphetamine.
Still, there’s a lot left unsettled, including investigations from the Inglewood Police Department and LA County District Attorney’s office, and a pair of wrongful death claims filed by Bostic’s family against Inglewood police and the LA County Fire Department.
Darden and other family members have made it their mission to fight for information about the actions of the police who arrested him and the paramedics who treated him.
They have demonstrated on street corners and showed up to almost every Inglewood City Council meeting despite officials booting demonstrators from multiple meetings. On Sunday afternoon, they plan to gather once more at the intersection of Nutwood and Hillcrest and march to Inglewood City Hall.
“We cannot stop this fight,” Darden said. “If you let up, they will try to sweep this under the rug.”
Mayor James Butts told The LA Local the city won’t release some information until police complete their investigation, which may take two to three more months.
Here’s what has been released
- Mayor’s statement: Butts said in a March 22 statement that police pulled Bostic over and arrested him after a brief struggle. Paramedics responded to the scene — Butts wrote that Bostic was sweating and had bruising on his face — before police drove him to the city jail five blocks away. Butts said Bostic appeared to have stopped breathing by the time he arrived at the city jail.
- Arrest video: Video of Bostic’s arrest taken by a bystander appears to show him being pinned to the sidewalk by officers. Denisse Gastélum, an attorney for Bostic’s family, said in April that the video and a family-commissioned autopsy show officers used excessive force.
- Medical Examiner’s report: The LA County Medical Examiner’s office found Bostic died accidentally from the effects of methamphetamine. He had a number of head injuries from blunt force trauma, according to a report from the county office, but the medical examiner determined they did not significantly contribute to his death.
- Second autopsy: An autopsy commissioned by Bostic’s family described deep bruising on Bostic’s back, legs, and in the region of his kidneys, according to a family legal claim.
Here’s what hasn’t been settled
- District Attorney’s investigation: The LA County District Attorney’s Office told The LA Local in March that the office was investigating Inglewood police use of force in Bostic’s death, but last week said the matter was “under review.” The office’s policy is only to investigate deaths in police custody if an officer’s use of force is considered a central cause of death.
- Inglewood Police Department investigation: Butts told The LA Local that Inglewood police’s investigation into the incident remains open and could take another two to three months.
- Wrongful death claim against Inglewood police: Bostic’s family submitted a wrongful death claim against the city and its police department in the spring, and Gastélum said she plans to follow up with a full federal civil rights lawsuit by the end of the year. The city has not responded to the claim, according to Butts.
- Wrongful death claim against LA County Fire paramedics: At the end of August, Bostic’s family submitted a second wrongful death claim to LA County, alleging that paramedics from the LA County Fire Department failed to assess and treat Bostic at the scene of his arrest. Gastélum said the claim could also be part of a full lawsuit. County officials declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Bostic family attorney says police, paramedic actions are still unclear
Gastélum said it’s still unclear whether police knew Bostic had ingested methamphetamine, and if they did, whether they took appropriate actions.
Police and paramedics, she contended, could have done more to save his life before he was found not breathing in the back seat of a patrol vehicle.
“They allowed a human being to poison himself in that back seat,” she said.
The medical examiner’s report and its determination of Bostic’s cause of death, the attorney said, is a tiny piece of the puzzle of events around Bostic’s death.
Gastelum said the police use of force still could have contributed to Bostic’s death, and that officers should not use force if they knew an individual had ingested methamphetamine.
Medical examiners relied on an examination of Bostic’s body and a description of events from police detectives, but the report says the office was not able to interview the officers who arrested Bostic about what force they used. The report also did not consider surveillance video footage from a nearby building.
“Ultimately, what the report did was provide us with a scientific explanation of how that human being died,” Gastelum said. “Looking at the body, looking at a blood sample may not have shown all of the factors that would be involved with Mr. Bostic’s death.”
The family’s claim against the LA County Fire Department alleges that paramedics did not assess or treat Bostic at the scene of his arrest, and logged in a patient care record that Bostic refused medical care.
When Bostic was found not breathing and paramedics were called a second time to the city jail, according to the claim, the patient care record says police told paramedics they believed Bostic had taken “copious amounts of unidentified drugs before they arrested him.”
Paramedics logged efforts to resuscitate Bostic for at least 10 minutes before he was declared dead, according to the claim.
