Mother of teen who died by suicide sues Las Vegas police
A civil rights lawsuit filed Friday argues that Las Vegas police “brought about the death” of a 16-year-old boy in 2017 by withholding medical attention for seven hours after he shot himself in the head.
Police have said the teen, Anthony Garrett, pulled the trigger in his upstairs bedroom as officers, who suspected the boy in a nearby home burglary, were closing in. At the time, police said they believed officers were the target of the shot and did not realize Garrett was wounded until a SWAT team entered the room.
But in a news conference Friday afternoon, attorney Brent Bryson questioned the Metropolitan Police Department narrative.
“We know that a shot was fired,” Bryson said. “We know that the coroner’s office has ruled it a suicide as a result of a self-inflicted wound. We hope through the discovery process of this lawsuit that we can find other information to shed more light on exactly how this shot occurred.”
The federal lawsuit also claims officers allowed a police dog to bite and drag the teenager while he was alive. The dog tore at flesh on Garrett’s eyelids, face and neck — injuries that were not disclosed until the boy’s autopsy, Bryson said.
“I want answers,” the boy’s mother, Taccara Brooks, told members of the media. “I want to know what happened to my son. I want to know why they let him sit in that house for seven hours without taking him to the hospital. I just want to know why.”
The mother is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages.
Metro declined to comment Friday.
The day of the July 12, 2017, shooting, police had been canvassing the area for a reported burglar. They suspected Garrett but could not find him. So the boy’s mother allowed them to come inside her house and search for evidence, which they did for about two hours.
Then Garrett suddenly ran inside and bolted upstairs. Police chased behind him toward a bathroom, where they then saw him loading a firearm, police said.
As officers moved in to detain him, Garrett slipped into his connecting bedroom. Then officers heard the shot.
Brooks said Friday she does not keep weapons in her home. She said police kept her in the dark that day and ever since, refusing to tell her if her son was OK, then refusing to let her ride in Garrett’s ambulance and refusing to let her inside the hospital.
When she protested at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, they threatened to trespass her, she said.
“I mean, he’s 16 years old,” she said Friday, wiping away tears. “Why can’t I stay with him?”
By the time she learned that her son — a star math student in his magnet program who loved to play basketball — had been shot in the head, he was already dead.
She noted that her sister watched some body camera footage, since Brooks couldn’t bear to see it. But it “seemed edited” and didn’t reveal much, she said.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal previously requested any and all body camera footage from the encounter with Garrett. The department said the detectives who closed in on Garrett were not wearing body cameras and that the rest of the footage could not be released because it was filmed in a private residence.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby.
Taccara Brooks lawsuit against Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd