A small group of protesters wanting answers in the death of 18-year-old Dezmen McBride while McBride was in the Jefferson County jail were provided shelter from the hot sun Tuesday by Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., who oversees the jail.
And although McBride's mother, Deborah McBride, was unable to attend the event, she said Wednesday that the family had secured the legal services of Ben Crump, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney.
About 20 people made up of family members, friends and supporters gathered in front of the Dub Brassell Detention Center, some holding signs asking for answers, said they want to know what happened to McBride, who was arrested on May 21 in connection with a charge of committing a terroristic act and who died on June 5 after being taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center.
Seana Spears, who said she was a member of Common Unity, a local activist group and one of the organizers, said the lack of information about McBride's death needed to be addressed by jail officials.
"We want clear answers," she said. "That's the main thing. There's so much speculation. Why wasn't anything done to protect him, especially given the tone of violence in the city. We need a good understanding of what transpired."
At 4 p.m. Tuesday, when the protesters met, the temperature was 95 degrees. Not long after, Woods came walking down the sidewalk, pulling a boxed canopy that he and other county officials quickly erected.
"I'm gonna get a tent up for you all, man," Woods told them. He was met by shouts from the audience asking for details in McBride's death.
A few wandered over to stand in the shade of the canopy, but Woods and others stood in the sun discussing what may or may not have happened to McBride, with several people peppering the sheriff with calls to release video recordings that would show what transpired while the young man was in the jail.
Woods said he wouldn't release pieces of evidence in the case that is now being internally investigated and would wait until all the information has been gathered before making it available to the public.
"I respect you all," Woods said. "But we don't know the answer to the million-dollar question, and that is why did he die. The only person that can do that is the medical examiner."
Woods said this is not a situation in which county officials know what happened and are not telling the public.
"That's not the case," Woods said. "We don't want any speculation. We want to know the cause and manner of his death. How did he die and why did he die? That autopsy is going to tell you that."
McBride's sister, Tamara McBride, did not accept the sheriff's explanation.
"I want the FBI involved," she said. "I know you're lying. His mother wanted to see her son's body. How does she even know her son is dead?"
Deborah McBride, who was said to be physically unable to attend the protest, told The Commercial recently that she had talked to her son only once while he was in jail. She said she had called numerous other times but was always told he was sleeping. She said the family had tried unsuccessfully to see her son's body.
"We all go up there, and he's not even there," Deborah McBride told The Commercial recently. "I never saw his body."
Pressed for more details by some in the group, Woods repeated several times that he was unable to provide more answers at this time. He said he had asked the state Medical Examiner's office to "expedite" McBride's autopsy, adding later that he did not know how quickly the examiner's report would be available.
"I can't speculate, and you have to go by the facts," Woods said. "And what you have heard is not based on facts."
McBride's brother, Marqusie Carter, who carried a framed photograph of McBride, was upset by Woods' unwillingness to divulge more details. At one point, the two men distanced themselves from others in the group and spoke privately for several minutes.
"My brother called me and said 'someone jumped me down here,'" Carter said. "Three or four days later, he's gone. It wasn't the streets that killed him. It was the jail."
According to medical records obtained earlier by The Commercial, on June 1, Dezmen McBride was treated at the medical center for headaches and nausea. Medical records also state that he said he was hit in the head the day before.
His test results came back normal, and he was discharged with instructions to return immediately if any of the symptoms worsened, the files show.
"My son made a call asking for help because he feared he was going to die in that jail," Deborah McBride said at the time. "He was complaining about his head hurting. Something was done to him in that jail. How did my baby die?"
Woods confirmed that Dezmen McBride got into a physical altercation but said he was removed from that environment after he got into the fight.
William Carter, McBride's stepfather who said he had raised McBride "from day one," said Tuesday that McBride's death had devastated the family and that if he, Carter, had been killed at a young age, he would have been denied many of the joys he has today.
"Look at all of these folks," he said. "These are all my children and grandchildren. I would not have had any of them had someone decided to kill me when I was 18."
Carter said he was unhappy with what Woods had to say Tuesday to his family.
"No, there ain't going to be any satisfaction until we know what happened to Dezmen, and it all comes out," he said. "I understand what he's saying, but I won't be satisfied until there's justice."
Over the weekend, Woods issued a news release saying he would continue working to get to the bottom of what happened to McBride.
"As sheriff, I am firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in our custody, no matter the circumstances that caused their confinement," he wrote. " Like any case involving an in-custody death, there are a number of statements and other evidence that have to be evaluated as we move through our internal comprehensive and investigative review of the events leading up to the death of Dezmen McBride."
Reached Wednesday, Deborah McBride said she did not think the county should be looking into the case against itself.
"I don't think Lafayette Woods should be investigating this," she said, adding that she was not pleased with the $100 the sheriff's office had offered her to help with her son's funeral. "He's not going to do right with it. I think the FBI should be involved."
Deborah McBride then said she had hired Crump to represent the family. Crump has specialized in high-profile, wrongful-death lawsuits such as those involving Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and George Floyd, as well as cases involving the Flint, Mich., water crisis.
Tamara McBride said later Wednesday that the family had signed a contract with the Crump law firm earlier in the day.
"I want justice," Deborah McBride said.
Reporter Eplunus Colvin contributed to this story.