Damien Cameron
Damien Cameron was a 29-year-old Black man from Rankin County, Mississippi, who had gone to a neighbor's home that morning to ask about doing yard work for money, according to his mother, Monica Lee. During an encounter with Rankin County sheriff's deputies at his family's home in Braxton in July 2021, deputies tased him, and his mother says they knelt on his back and neck while he repeatedly said he could not breathe. The sheriff's initial statement says he was found unresponsive after being walked to a patrol vehicle, while a state investigation report says he collapsed during the encounter, and he died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The family cites UMMC doctors who listed cardiac arrest and blunt force trauma to the head, the state medical examiner called the cause inconclusive, and a grand jury declined to indict the deputies in October 2022, while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation says its case remains open.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The state medical examiner ruled the cause inconclusive, while his mother says deputies tased him and knelt on his neck and back as he said he couldn't breathe, and the family's account cites UMMC doctors listing blunt force trauma to the head. The family says deputies did not give him the care he needed after he was found unresponsive in a patrol car, and that CPR was performed only after that.
Reported by: state medical examiner; Monica Lee, his mother (family or their lawyers); Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (outside investigators); Rankin County Sheriff's Department (the agency that held him).