"The most dramatic moment in the deposition came when Roderick Gadson, an Alabama prison guard, was questioned under oath about an incident in which he and other officers used such devastating force against a prisoner that the man had to be airlifted to hospital to treat his injuries. Gadson was shown a photograph of the man, Steven Davis. He was lying in an ICU bed breathing through a tube, his cadaverous face bruised and covered with blood, his eyes black and sunken. Gadson was asked whether he felt that the amount of force used had been appropriate, given the way Davis looked. He replied: I don't feel like nothing. I just did my job."
"Davis was flown by helicopter to the hospital. As a US Department of Justice investigation found, the prisoner had sustained serious injuries as a result of the officers' actions, including fractures to his skull, eye sockets, left ear and cheekbone, and to the base of his skull. A medical examination identified 16 distinct injuries to his head and neck. Some of the blows caused internal bleeding on the brain."
"One of the witnesses said the officer hit Davis with his metal stick in the head, picked him up, throwed him down. He stomped the dude with his size 15 boot. The guy's head bounced like a basketball."
On 4 October 2019, Roderick Gadson and five other officers responded to a security breach at Donaldson correctional facility involving 35-year-old prisoner Steven Davis. Davis had attempted to attack another inmate with improvised plastic knives and was reportedly sprayed with Mace before officers restrained him. Witnesses said Davis put down the makeshift weapons and lay prone and unresistant when officers continued using force; one witness described blows with a metal stick, being thrown to the ground, and stomping with a size 15 boot. Davis was airlifted to hospital with multiple skull and facial fractures and 16 distinct head and neck injuries, including internal brain bleeding. During deposition, Gadson was shown Davis's ICU photograph and said, "I don't feel like nothing. I just did my job."
#prison-brutality #use-of-force #donaldson-correctional-facility #department-of-justice-investigation
Read at www.theguardian.com
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