Jerry Parker
Jerry Parker was a 54-year-old Army veteran treated for bipolar disorder, and his family says he was the one who took care of his mother, Margaret Jean Kelly, who was 74. In May 2017 he was taken to the Wayne County Detention Center in Goldsboro, North Carolina, during a psychiatric episode, and a civil rights lawsuit brought by his mother's attorneys alleges that officers pepper sprayed, beat, hogtied and shocked him there. An autopsy attributed his death to cardiac arrest and traumatic brain injury, with the claimed causes including blunt force trauma, physical restraint, pepper spray and a conducted electrical weapon. The lawsuit's allegations remain unproven, and the detention center declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). His mother's civil rights lawsuit says officers pepper sprayed, beat, hogtied and shocked him, while the autopsy attributes his death to cardiac arrest and traumatic brain injury from blunt force trauma, restraint, pepper spray and a conducted electrical weapon.
Reported by: civil rights lawsuit filed by his mother's attorneys (family or their lawyers); autopsy report.
Lawsuit: His mother's attorneys filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that officers at the Wayne County Detention Center pepper sprayed, stripped, beat, hogtied, and shocked him, and no settlement or award amount has been reported.