A Texas grieving mother is demanding answers after viewing jail surveillance video that appears to show her Army veteran son hitting his head and lying immobile for hours, with only inmates checking on him, she says.
Jonia Milburn said her son, 27-year-old Christon Collins, returned from active duty in 2018 with pronounced PTSD and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia by VA physicians.
Collins died in March, after he was found unresponsive by officers at the DeKalb County Jail in Georgia, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office. Few details have been publicly released by the department, except for an early statement that said Collins died after a "medical emergency."
But this week, Milburn received hours of jail surveillance video and initial sheriff's reports after filing a Public Records Request, the family said.
In it, Collins appears to have some kind of episode in which he staggers, hits his head, and is led into a cell by fellow inmates. About 30 minutes later, inmates are seen pulling him out of the cell and leaving him on the floor of the jail's common area, his mother said. About three hours after that, officers are seen entering the day room, the family said.
He died March 15, two days after he was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator, his mother said. The family made the heartbreaking decision to remove him from life support, according to his mother.
A spokesperson for DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox declined comment to Inside Edition Digital this week, citing possible civil litigation over the incident.
"While Sheriff Maddox continues to express condolences to the Collins family, the county attorney has advised that it would be inappropriate to comment on this potential legal matter," the department's public information officer said in an email.
“To have him lie on the floor like that — not one person — other than the inmates, that’s not their jobs,” Milburn said. “Somebody should’ve seen something at some point," Milburn told WSB-TV this week.
"There was no urgency of anyone moving on when they found my son, there was no sense of concern," the mother said.
The family said it also received preliminary sheriff's reports that said two officers had been reprimanded over Collins' death after an internal investigation. One jailer was cited for for negligence on duty and another for using a cellphone while on duty, the family said.
Milburn said she wants an independent investigation of her son's death.
Collins had been in the DeKalb County Jail since February, when he arrested during a mental health episode, his mother said. He was charged withobstruction of law enforcement and simple battery against a law enforcement officer, according to court records.
The veteran's mother said he began showing signs of trauma the first night he returned home after being deployed. The young man acted "zombied-out" she said. "He was never the same," she told the station.
After the jail surveillance was released to Milburn, the family had a press conference Monday to demand justice for Collins.
Days later, the prosecutor's office said further examination of the death was necessary.
"We are very concerned about the circumstances surrounding the death of Christon Collins in the DeKalb County Jail," said DeKalb District AttorneySherry Bostonin a statement Wednesday.
"Our office was previously advised that Mr. Collins died as the result of a medical emergency. New information has come to light that we believe warrants further examination," the prosecutor said.
"We will be asking the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office to forward all related information to us so that we can fully investigate what happened to Mr. Collins,” Boston's statement concluded.
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