Family Of Rhyker Earl Want Someone Held Accountable For His Death

Source: Jasper County Sheriff’s Office/WISH-TV / other

DE MOTTE, Ind. — The body camera footage of when sheriff’s deputies and EMTs responded to a man’s medical emergency in northern Indiana was released last week. Rhyker Earl ended up dying as police subdued him before being taken to the hospital.

Now, Earl’s family is calling those involved with the incident that night to be held accountable.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump of the Chicago Urban League is representing the family and said at a press conference on Monday that Rhyker Earl didn’t have to die that September night as he was struggling with the effects of an epileptic seizure.

“Anytime a person is complaining about breathing, and saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ I vow that we will get to the truth of what happened if they die in police custody,” he said. “Because it’s not supposed to happen when you’re having a seizure that you end up dead.”

Earl’s family called 911 in the evening of Sept. 8. Earl was having a medical emergency related to his epilepsy and needed help. EMTs arrived and a struggle ensued which led to sheriff’s deputies stepping in to subdue him.

Body camera footage shows the deputies holding him down for several minutes. At one point one deputy is heard saying “Hey! Don’t f****** touch the medic. You’re going to the hospital. Don’t f****** hit him!”

All the while, Earl can be heard pleading with the deputies to lay off.

“Guys, please,” Earl said. “Guys, why are you doing this to me?”

Earl became unconscious soon after that and by the time EMTs got him to the hospital he was dead.

“As a witness to this tragic night, I know there is more footage out there somewhere,” said Miracle Glowinsky, Earl’s aunt. “There is footage of me screaming, pleading, “He’s blue. Take his pulse.” Screaming so loud that people outside heard it, but you don’t see it on the camera.”

“As we went to the service, I noticed on Rhyker many bruises on his hands. I know that was from the handcuffs,” said Earl’s grandmother Sharon Krause-Earl. “Bruises on his face and eye; that was like torture all over again. He went through torture and he just needed some help for a seizure.”

Autopsy results on how Earl died are still pending, but doctors at the hospital say he had several doses of sedatives in his system at the time of his death. EMTs can be seen giving those doses on the body camera footage.

Indiana State Police have taken over the investigation into the incident.