‘I want answers.’ Family accuses Palmetto police officers of brutality after son’s death
Dozens of protesters gathered at the Palmetto Police Department to demand answers about a death that happened shortly after an encounter with officers in November.
Family members and supporters of 36-year-old Breonte Johnson-Davis say he died in the hospital after Palmetto police officers used a stun gun and punched him multiple times. But they say their questions surrounding the incident have gone unanswered by law enforcement officials in the two months since.
Those unanswered questions prompted a Sunday afternoon demonstration, which his mother, Tracey Washington, said was to seek justice and answers on behalf of her son. The family said he was “brutalized and murdered by Palmetto Police” in a press release.
“We just want somebody to respond to us. We just want someone to give us answers. We haven’t received anything,” Washington said. “They just keep telling us it’s under investigation.”
Palmetto Police Chief Scott Tyler declined to comment last week when reached by the Bradenton Herald. He cited an active Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation that he expects to be completed “over the next few weeks.”
But months after the incident — and just an hour after Sunday’s protest began — Tyler issued the department’s first public statement on the case, describing it as an “in-custody death.”
Man dies after Palmetto police encounter
In the statement, police say Johnson-Davis “actively resisted” an officer’s “attempts to restrain him and an officer employed a Taser to gain compliance.”
Police have not commented on whether officers punched Johnson-Davis.
Once the FDLE investigation is finished, Tyler said he plans to share surveillance video and body camera footage of the incident with the community.
Washington says police showed her the body camera footage, which she said showed her son acting erratically before becoming unresponsive after police used a stun gun multiple times. She also said it showed one officer joke about how he got to “try out his new Taser.”
Washington and others at Sunday’s march demanded to see an unedited version of the body camera footage released to the public.
What happened before Johnson-Davis died?
At around 2:20 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, police arrived at the Circle K store at 1706 Eighth Avenue West in Palmetto in response to a customer who was being aggressive and disruptive with staff and customers at the store.
When they arrived, police say they found Johnson-Davis running away from the store. An officer said Johnson-Davis began banging on the window of the patrol vehicle, preventing the officer from getting out of his car.
Johnson-Davis then jumped on the hood of the patrol car and began rolling around, both police and Washington said.
Based on his behavior, police say they attempted to take him into custody under a Marchman Act.
The Marchman Act provides for voluntary and involuntary admissions and assessments of people who are severely impaired due to substance abuse, according to Florida law.
An incident report obtained by the Bradenton Herald confirmed that police invoked a Marchman Act, with the primary offense description labeled as an “overdose” on the report.
Washington said that while she believes her son was under the influence of drugs at the time and suffering a mental health incident, she said she didn’t see police officers administer naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, in the body camera footage she was shown.
The Bradenton Herald requested the full police report, but Palmetto Police said the report is “not releasable” because it is an active investigation.
Police say that when they tried to take Johnson-Davis into custody, he resisted and officers used a stun gun.
Washington contends that Palmetto police used a stun gun multiple times, causing her son to go from energetic to motionless.
Paramedics arrived and took Johnson-Davis to Manatee Memorial Hospital, where he was placed on life support.
Washington said he died the next day on Nov. 2. The Palmetto Police Department’s press release said he died on Nov. 3.
A cause of death has not yet been released publicly, but Washington said hospital staff told her that her son suffered cardiac arrest.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner’s Office has not released a death investigation report to the Bradenton Herald. The office said it is awaiting a toxicology report, which could take as long as six months.
Community members demand answers
There were calls from the community Sunday to fire the officers involved in the incident.
Tyler would not say whether any of the officers involved had been placed on administrative leave or face any punishment.
“We will release the body camera footage with the completed investigation, and I believe that it will clear any other questions up,” Tyler wrote the Bradenton Herald in an email Friday.
But for some, that’s not enough.
“I feel like the police have a responsibility to the public. I just think it’s so inappropriate that they even feel like they can give a family the silent treatment. We shouldn’t have police departments that feel like they can get away with that,” said Ruth Beltran, a member of Answer Suncoast and the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Tampa Bay, who helped organize Sunday’s protest.
Johnson-Davis was the oldest of Washington’s three kids. She described him as a laid-back, quiet and nice person. He was a father of four and an avid football and basketball player at Palmetto High School.
Protesters had a life-sized cutout of Johnson-Davis on Sunday. His father, Willie Davis, had the sneakers his son was wearing during the police encounter tied together by the laces and slung over his shoulder. Family members also brought the clothes Johnson-Davis was wearing and pointed to several holes they said were made by the stun gun.
Washington wants to make sure this sort of thing never happens again.
“I’m angry because my child is gone, but at the same time, I need something in place so this doesn’t happen to anyone else because this is a pain like no other,” Washington said.
But to anyone who will listen, she’s quick to add that’s not all she wants.
“I want answers,” she said.
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 5:50 AM.
