On July 8, 2015, Jonathan Sanders, a 39-year-old

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

man, died while being restrained by

Stonewall, Mississippi Stonewall is a town in Clarke County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,088 at the 2010 census. History A cotton mill was established here in 1868. The town was named after Confederate Army General Stonewall Jackson. Stonewall's ...

police officer Kevin Herrington. In January 2016, a grand jury declined to indict the officer, and in March 2016, a grand jury determined Sanders choked after swallowing a bag of cocaine, and police had not used excessive force while restraining him.

Incident and inquiry

At the time of the incident, witnesses reported that the officer had used a racial slur during his encounter with Sanders, and that Sanders' breathing had been obstructed by officer Kevin Herrington for as much as 30 minutes. Sanders died at the scene. At his funeral on July 18, 2015, 1,000 people attended. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) was reported to have joined the investigation into Sanders' death.

Outcome of grand jury

Following a medical autopsy in July 2015, which determined the cause of death as homicide by "manual asphyxiation", Clarke County District Attorney Bilbo Mitchell scheduled a grand jury. In January 2016, a grand jury determined that Sanders died of "

mechanical asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are ma ...

" after swallowing a bag of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, and that the police officer was in the right to pursue Sanders based on the suspicion he was involved in drug activity. It furthermore determined there was no evidence showing a traumatic injury inflicted by the police officer. There was speculation over whether the police officer had used a racial slur during the incident. The jury found no evidence to support that. The jury concluded that Sanders "did not act in conformity with his normal character due to the influence of cocaine which was found in his system at the time of his death". The

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

doubted the grand jury findings and released a statement asking for an outside investigation by the Department of Justice.

References

External links

Coverage from the Jackson Free Press

Reuters Analysis + Opinion

The Guardian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Jonathan 2015 deaths Deaths by person in Mississippi Deaths in police custody in the United States Death of Jonathan Sanders Black Lives Matter Cocaine-related deaths in Mississippi July 2015 in the United States Law enforcement in Mississippi Clarke County, Mississippi