A Dallas County grand jury recently ruled not to indict officers implicated in the 2022 police custody death of 41-year-old Kenneth Knotts at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The Dallas County medical examiner's office had previously deemed Knotts' death a homicide, citing sudden cardiac arrest following law enforcement's restraint of him in a "semi-prone position", as reported by The Dallas Morning News.
The grand jury's decision has been met with disappointment by the Knotts family. Their lawyer, Geoff Henley, confirmed the verdict, noting insufficient information about the officers' identities and details related to the case. Following the referral of the case to a grand jury in February, Dallas police initiated an investigation, leaving several questions unanswered, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Prior to his demise, Knotts has been brought to UT Southwestern Medical Center by the Hutchins police for a psychiatric examination. Approximately three hours after his entry, he left the treatment room briefly before being detained again by UT Southwestern police, handcuffed, and returned to hospital, as covered on Fox 4 News.
In the hospital, Knotts was unwilling to cooperate and administered medication. Within eight minutes, he became unresponsive and subsequent resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead shortly after, as reported by Fox 4 News.
In light of the event and subsequent rulings, the grieving family has initiated a lawsuit against the University of Texas system in a federal court, accusing them of excessive, deadly force. The lawsuit contends that the police deliberately used force on Knotts without any justifiable reason, and his autopsy results indicated symptoms of asphyxia due to officer-implemented restraint methods, as reported by KERA News.
There has been a lack of transparency in this case, as UT Southwestern and Dallas police have been unresponsive to numerous unanswered queries pertaining to the officers involved, the de-escalation techniques used, the physical restraint of Knotts, and the timing of his unconsciousness, according to another Dallas Morning News article.
Amid their search for answers, Kenneth's mother Jocelyn Knotts shared with Fox 4 News that her physically healthy son required mental health assistance but was tragically killed in custody. The family is currently advocating for a jury trial and unspecified damages, hoping the civil lawsuit will progress their cause for justice, as covered by KERA News.
