Distressing new video has been released showing a Dallas woman dying in an ambulance on the way to the hospital after being restrained by the police.
LaDamonyon Dewayne Hall, a 47-year-old transgender woman, died on May 26 after being detained by cops over a disturbance at a business on Garland Avenue, police said Wednesday.
The footage released shows Hall’s interactions with the officers responding to a 911 call from an employee at a car lot about a woman causing a disturbance.
The caller reported that the woman, later identified as Hall, appeared by be either drunk or high on drugs.
Two cops who arrived at the scene — Jon Leach and Alan Hovis — found Hall in an apparent “altered mental state,” police said.
In the bodycam video, a dazed-looking Hall refuses to answer most of the officers’ questions and then collapses face down while talking to paramedics.
Hall then stands up, pulls off her wig, yells something incoherent at first responders and starts taking off her dress.
The officers tried to arrest Hall, but she resisted and was “taken to the ground and handcuffed,” Deputy Chief Terrence Rhodes said in the video’s introduction.
Once on the ground, Hall proceeded to “trash about and scream,” according to Rhodes.
The footage shows the 47-year-old screaming: “Stop it! You’re hurting me, motherf***ers!”
Hall continues hurling obscenities at first responders, and at one point exclaims, “Hey mom. Hey, dad.”
Hall was later placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance while still screaming.
On the ride over to Baylor Hospital, a spit hood was placed over Hall’s head, which she tried in vain to throw off.
The video shows a paramedic smiling as Hall thrashes about and screams.
About 15 minutes into the trip, Hall falls silent. The paramedic leans over to check on the patient.
“Sir, can you talk to me?” Leach asks, addressing Hall as a man. “I’d rather have screaming that that.”
Hall appears non-responsive, and the paramedic begins to rub her chest. He then proceeds to perform chest compressions before the ambulance arrives at the hospital and Hall is wheeled inside.
Hall was pronounced dead at 2:05 p.m. An autopsy was performed, but her toxicology reports are still pending.
The police department’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating the in-custody death, Rhodes said.
Hall’s family member released a statement Friday demanding that police officers and medical personnel be held accountable for the woman’s death on their watch.
“Dee deserves justice,” Monika Hall wrote on Facebook, using Hall’s nickname. “The video shows that this could have been prevented… Again with a heavy heart DPD must be stopped DPD must follow proper protocol and We are here to make sure that this never happens to anyone else.”
