George Henderson, a 61-year-old Black man and army veteran suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, had wandered away from his Tennessee home last year, eventually ending up across state lines in a convenience store in desperate need of assistance.
In Kentucky, a cop assaulted Henderson and knocked him unconscious after falsely accusing him of being under the influence of drugs.
Henderson’s wife, Kimberly, filed a lawsuit against Guthrie police officer Jacob Pritchett, accusing him of excessive force, battery, defamation, negligence, and malicious prosecution.
Guthrie Police Chief Dean Blumel is also named as a defendant, accused of negligent policy enforcement and negligent training, which is ironic given that the chief claimed Pritchett was following his “training and departmental policy” when he falsely accused the Black man of being on drugs and beat him unconscious.
“During this arrest for nonexistent cocaine, Defendant Pritchett slung the Plaintiff to the gas station floor, mounted the Plaintiff’s back, and, while the Plaintiff was fully subdued, struck the Plaintiff in the back of the head, causing a contusion, laceration, and head trauma and rendering the Plaintiff unconscious for a period of time,” according to a lawsuit filed in Todd County Circuit Court on April 24 by Kentucky attorney Jeremy Stochaj.
Henderson, a retired master sergeant who spent nearly three decades in the United States Army, where he served in six overseas deployments and suffered head injuries and PTSD, was charged with five false charges: theft by unlawful taking, public intoxication, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, and possession of a controlled substance.
A grand jury declined to indict him after three months of pending charges, as reported by Clarksville Now.
“Based on the information Officer Pritchett had available to him, and the circumstances that arose during the interaction, Officer Pritchett handled the matter in accordance with his training and departmental policy,” Chief Blumel said in a statement to the media following the incident.
However, no one appears to have trained Pritchett on how to get people to identify themselves without beating them unconscious, as it took a store employee only a few seconds to learn Henderson’s name by simply asking him after the cop expressed frustration at not knowing his name, according to the body camera footage posted below.
Silver alert
Henderson vanished from his Clarksville, Tennessee, home around 2 p.m. on Dec. 6, prompting the Clarksville Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue a Silver Alert, a public notification system for missing elderly people suffering from dementia, at 4 p.m.
Henderson ended up across state lines in Kentucky, where he was discovered 10 hours later in a gas station after the attendant called police to report Henderson attempting to steal his parked car, but it appears that the Black man was simply confused due to his disabilities.
When Pritchett arrived, Henderson appeared to be confused and incoherent, but not dangerous or violent.
“I’m not doing anything. “I’m not trying to steal anything,” Henderson told the officer, wearing two different shoes on his feet.
Pritchett inquired about Henderson’s medication. “Your pupils are very, very small and pinpointed. Can you look up into the air for me?”
“I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs,” Henderson said.
“Put you hands behind your back for me, you got cocaine in your nose,” Pritchett exclaimed.
“That’s a lie,” Henderson said as Pritchett grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground, leaving the older man face down on the floor with the cop on top of him.
The video shows the cop’s left hand holding Henderson’s head down while punching him once in the back of the head with his right hand, knocking him out for about 30 seconds.
“Let go of my hand, goddammit!” Place your hands behind your back!” The cop yelled while both of his hands were clearly free of Henderson’s grip.
Despite learning that Henderson had dementia and had been reported missing, Pritchett continued to claim he was guilty of a crime, even after being knocked unconscious.
“He was snoring, but he still wasn’t giving me his hands,” Pritchett told paramedics who arrived at the scene, according to body camera footage.
“I could still feel active resistance.”
Pritchett even asked paramedics if they had anything he could use to swab Henderson’s nose for cocaine, despite the fact that no white powder was visible in his nose on body camera footage.
“We have nothing that will help you with that,” said a paramedic.
Rather than returning Henderson to his family, Pritchett took him to jail in an apparent attempt to justify his aggressive behavior toward a man in distress.
Henderson has had three seizures since his unlawful arrest, which he had never experienced before, according to his wife, Kimberly.
Stochaj, the attorney, told Atlanta Black Star in an email that Pritchett was most likely acting out of bias.
“George and his family have spent their lives making sacrifices for this country, only for George to be brutalized and criminalized by a purported public servant during his time of profound need,” according to a statement.
“The video speaks for itself: George was not hostile and displayed every sign of mental distress, but no signs of drug use.”
Nonetheless, Officer Pritchett slung him to the floor, mounted his back, and knocked him unconscious, most likely due to bias. Officer Pritchett then escalated his mistreatment by charging a decorated military veteran and the subject of an active Silver Alert with crimes he clearly did not commit, as well as denying George’s obvious need for medical attention.”
“To date, no one associated with the Guthrie Police Department has attempted to take responsibility for this disturbing behavior. We will continue to work tirelessly to vindicate George’s hard-earned rights.”
The Atlanta Black Star has reported numerous instances of police abuse and violations of Black veterans’ rights, despite their service to the country.
