Northcott: Appears woman died of medical condition after altercation with officers

Feb 12, 2020 at 08:00 am by bryan


UPDATE: Coffee County District Attorney General Craig Northcott released a statement Monday afternoon with more clarification to Saturday's incident at the Manchester Walmart that ended in a woman going to the hospital and later passing away.

Partner station WMSR reported to Tuesday that police were dispatched to Walmart Saturday morning regarding a woman behaving erratically. When officers arrived and asked the suspect to walk outside the store, Northcott says the woman escalated the situation and officers were forced to detain her. While attempting to detain the woman, she collapsed. She was taken to Unity Medical Center and later to St. Thomas Hospital where she died.

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Northcott confirmed that he has requested that the TBI investigate the situation to provide an independent review. He also confirmed that a significant amount of methamphetamine was found with the woman. Northcott added that, at this point, "it appears that the woman died from a medical issue unrelated to the officer's conduct. There is no reason to believe that the officer acted inappropriately or in any way contributed to the death of the woman."

Northcott has requested an autopsy to determine cause of death. He said without any new information, the district attorney's office will take no action in this case.

Northcott's office has chosen not to release the name of the deceased.

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