Williamsburg man dies following altercation with police Sunday

Jeffery Jackson

Editor’s Note: An incorrect photo appeared in the print edition of this story. The photo above is the correct photo of the Jeffery Jackson referenced in this article. The News Journal apologizes for the error.

A Williamsburg man, who was apparently suffering from some kind of psychological episode, thought people were trying to kill him and jumped from a moving vehicle, died about 90 minutes after police handcuffed him Sunday evening.

Kentucky State Police Sgt. Tony Dingess, who is the investigating officer, said the matter is currently just a death investigation and there is no criminal investigation into the incident.

"I don’t know what caused his death, but I can say pretty certain that it wasn’t the officers’ actions," Dingess said.

Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley pronounced Jeffrey Jackson, 47, dead about 9 p.m. Sunday at Baptist Health Corbin.

Croley said late Tuesday afternoon that preliminary autopsy results showed there was no traumatic or pathological cause of death at this point.

Until the state medical examiner’s office completes its examination, Croley said that the case would remain open.

Dingess said that state medical examiner’s office is now examining Jackson’s blood toxicology in their search for a cause of death.

Incident begins

Dingess said the incident began about 7:30 p.m. when Jackson’s sister called 911 reporting that her brother was schizophrenic, seeing things and running into traffic on Highway 904.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression and inactivity, according to Wikipedia.

Dingess said that apparently Jackson flagged down a random stranger, a female high school student, on Highway 904 and jumped into her vehicle.

Through an open records request to Whitley County 911, the News Journal obtained a copy of all 911 calls and police radio traffic regarding the incident.

In the recordings, the girl can be heard calling 911 about 20 minutes after the incident started to report it to authorities.

She told dispatchers that she was driving down Highway 904 when a guy ran out in front of her.

"He jumped in my car. I had to stop so I didn’t hit him. He jumped into my car and started waiving $20 at me and said to give him a ride to his mom’s house that someone was chasing him. So I went along with what he said because he freaked me out. He jumped in my car," the teenager tells dispatchers in the recordings.

The teenager then headed towards the Highway 904 bridge because Jackson asked her to turn right, claiming he had an uncle who lived there, according to the recordings.

The driver pulled into the driveway of the house that Jackson had requested her to stop at.

"He said he was going to call 911. He didn’t get out of the car. He said, ‘Never mind just take me to my mom’s house.’ I started taking him back to town. He said I was driving too fast. I was scaring him. I slowed down a little bit and he jumped out of my car," the teenager can be heard telling dispatchers on the recording.

Dingess said the driver estimated she was going about 40 mph when Jackson jumped out of the vehicle.

Then Whitley County 911 dispatchers started getting multiple calls about a man trying to jump onto the hood of their vehicles and into their vehicles on Ky. 92, Dingess said.

At one point there were calls that Jackson was lying in the road.

Whitley County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kirk Mays and KSP Trooper David Lassiter responded to the scene and discovered Jackson screaming at motorists in a truck.

Dingess said that Mays asked Jackson to come over to his position.

"Kirk could see that he was injured so he requested EMS. He tries to convince him to walk over and calm down," Dingess said.
Dingess said Jackson walked over to Mays’ vehicle, turned, pushed off and fell to the ground.

At that point, police placed handcuffs onto Jackson for his own safety and that of the public because traffic was still moving on the roadway, Dingess said.

"He continues to be belligerent and tries to kick the lights out of the cruiser," Dingess said. "He tried to scream and yell and fight with officers there on the ground. They left him there waiting the arrival of EMS."

Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird said that during the incident, officers at the scene requested that his department bring a digital camera to the scene.

Sgt. Brandon White was close by and responded with a digital camera and took some photographs.

After the photographs were taken, Bird said he spoke with White on the phone and instructed him to return to the city because he was the only on-duty shift supervisor at the time.

While White was still on the scene, Jackson appeared to have stopped breathing and Mays went over to check on him, Dingess said.

"When they checked on him he came back to again and tried to pull away and roll out into the roadway. He was screaming and yelling at them again," Dingess said.

"Then he went silent for a minute. They checked his breathing at that point and realized that he had quit breathing," Dingess said.

Mays and Lassiter then borrowed White’s CPR mask and began CPR on Jackson until Whitley County EMS arrived, Bird said.

A Whitley County EMS ambulance transported him along with two firefighters on board to assist with resuscitation efforts. When ambulance crews reached the intersection of Ky. 92 and US25W, they also picked pun an Ambulance Inc. of Laurel County paramedic, who had come to assist.

Ambulance crews then transported Jackson to Baptist Health Corbin where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities said they don’t know yet whether drugs or alcohol played a role in Jackson’s death.

"At this time we are waiting on the results of the toxicology report," Dingess said.

Dingess said he received preliminary reports that Jackson had been taking Adipex, was possibly abusing it and may have had a prior drug history, but hasn’t been able to determine yet whether that is true.

911 recordings

According to the 911 recordings reviewed by the News Journal, the incident began about 7:26 p.m. when an unidentified male caller dialed 911 to say there was a man, who had run into the road saying some kid was trying to shoot him.

A few minutes later a woman called 911 to report that a man in front of her claimed to have been robbed and to have been pushed out of a car.

The dispatcher can be heard talking to Mays relaying the call that the man was supposedly robbed. The dispatcher advised Mays that they received a call about the man trying to chase down a car and jump on it. The dispatcher can then be heard telling the officer that the man tried to jump in a truck, and then that he was lying down in the roadway.

"He is going to end up getting hit," a 911 caller tells a dispatcher.

After Mays gets to the scene he radios dispatchers advising, "We’ve had to fight this subject. If you don’t care, roll EMS this way."

Dispatchers notified EMS about the need for an ambulance at 7:39 p.m.

Mays can be heard telling dispatchers that Jackson had a laceration to his foot and "a busted nose and busted mouth from where we had to wrestle him to the ground."

One of the original callers, who identifies herself as Jackson’s sister calls again asking if the subject was found and tells dispatchers, "It’s my brother."

She is heard asking dispatchers if he is all right and they tell her police are out with him and an ambulance is on the way. She then asks where he is at so she can go check on him.

Mays, who can be heard breathing hard, then radios dispatch asking for a Williamsburg police officer to respond with a digital camera.

"This male subject is still being combative trying to kick the trooper’s headlights out and my taillights out. We are trying to keep him out of the middle of the road and let traffic pass but he is still fighting with us," Mays radios dispatchers.

Mays can later be heard radioing dispatchers, "where is the EMS crew at? The male subject has quit breathing on us."
A short time later an officer can be heard telling dispatchers, "The male subject has quit breathing on us. I am going to have to get some help up here."

Dispatchers then radio Patterson Creek Volunteer Fire Department to provide assistance at the scene. Whitley EMS can then be heard asking dispatchers to request that Knox County EMS respond to assist with an advanced life support ambulance. EMS crews can be heard telling dispatchers that Jackson has a slight radial wrist pulse and CPR is being performed.

Dispatchers inform Whitley County EMS that Knox County doesn’t have a unit available, and are then asked to see if Laurel County has an advanced life support ambulance in Corbin that can assist.

Laurel County then agrees to send an advanced life support ambulance south with a paramedic on board.

Witness accounts

Eyewitness interpretations of Jackson’s interaction with police vary.

Bridgitte Sullivan said she was traveling back home from Williamsburg with her husband Sunday when the couple encountered what they first though was an automobile accident. Instead she said she saw a Kentucky State Police Trooper and a Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy speaking with a man, she later learned was Jackson.

“The guy was in the middle of the road. He didn’t really seem to be resisting or anything,” Sullivan said.

“He was talking to the state trooper and the deputy grabbed him and threw him down on the ground right into the oncoming lane of traffic, right into the blacktop as hard as he could throw him.”

Sullivan said cars were stopped in both directions at the time. She said Jackson’s head hit the roadway.

Sullivan said Jackson was then dragged to the side of the road. He was bleeding from the mouth. One of his shoes was missing and his other foot appeared to be bleeding around the shoe.

Sullivan said she had the car windows rolled down so she could hear what was going on.

“When we went by, the guy was screaming at us to help him. He said, ‘Please help me! They are going to kill me!’” Sullivan recounts. “They had him on the ground again. Why did they have to throw him on the ground again? Why keep stomping on his back? It was way too aggressive I thought. That man didn’t look like no thug to me. That was way too much aggression. They should have just Tasered him and got him in the car or something.”

Another witness, Sullivan’s mother-in-law, Pauline Sullivan said she witnessed police “put his head right into the concrete.”

“I don’t know what it escalated from. I don’t know what happened before what I saw. I just know what I saw didn’t look right.”
Bridgette Sullivan said she cried when she heard Jackson died and had wanted to stop to help him when she drove by the scene Sunday.

“I forgot my cell phone at home. I wish I would have had it with me. I would have recorded it so people could see. I don’t think what happened was right.”

Marilyn Jackson Griffith, Jeffrey Jackson’s sister, said her brother was acting very strangely the day he died.“That day, he was mentally unstable. He was very confused,” she said. “He was tired. I know something was going on. I’m not certain what was wrong, but he was hallucinating.”

She said he had been with some people in Williamsburg, but that he had contacted her wanting to come to her house because “he thought people were trying to harm him there.”She said it’s quite possible he could have taken some substance that caused him to become paranoid. He thought the police were after him.Griffith said her brother did not have a history of mental illness and was not a drug user. He worked for CTA Acoustics and had a clean drug screen, she said, just a week before his death. She said she went to the scene of his arrest and saw him right before he went unconscious.

“The first thing I said to that officer [Kirk Mays] is ‘did you hurt my brother’ He said, ‘No ma’am, I didn’t hurt him. He was fighting. I had to put him down and get on top of him.’”

Griffith said her brother had been prescribed Adipex and was using it to stay awake because he was working long, overnight shifts at CTA.She worries about witness accounts of her brother’s arrest and is concerned that he “was treated roughly.”
She said she plans to find out all she can about the exact cause of his death.

Police respond

Dingess said his investigation didn’t reveal anything, which would support claims of excessive force in this case.

"The subject turned around and spun around on Deputy Mays. At that time they just both went to the ground," Dingess said about the allegations in Sullivan’s account.

By state police policy this isn’t even considered use of force because there were no kicks, strikes, weapons used or Tasers deployed, Dingess noted.

"He (Mays) basically restrained the subject for the subject’s safety since he was hurt. It was an active scene where traffic was still moving. No one was holding that up," Dingess said. "In my opinion there is no evidence to suggest that witness statement is true."