HANCOCK COUNTY, Ga. — The district attorney for Hancock County won't seek criminal charges in Brianna Grier's death after she fell from a deputy's cruiser. The Georgia Bureau of investigation says because of this, the case is now closed. The GBI says they completed their look at the July 15 arrest that led to Grier's death six days later.
The GBI says they referred the case to District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale. He says he won't take the case to a grand jury.
Marvin and Mary Grier, Brianna's Grier's parents, say their 28-year-old was schizophrenic, and they'd call law enforcement to their home several times when she was out of control. They say EMTs would usually come to their home alongside deputies, but on the night of July 15, only two deputies showed up at the Grier family home and arrested Brianna for public drunkenness.
The deputies placed her in the rear passenger side door, but she was not secured inside and video of the arrest showed deputies failed to lock the back door. She fell out of the cruiser a few minutes later and suffered critical head injuries.
"If I had known it would turn out like this, God knows I wouldn't have called them to come get her," Mary Grier said back in July.
The family says at the time of the arrest, their daughter was having a schizophrenic episode.
"You don't know which way they're going go, who or what's telling them what to do or how to do. You don't know if they're going to hurt themselves or hurt you," Marvin Grier said.
They say the closest place she could be treated is a 40-minute drive to Milledgeville.
"We are facing a mental health crisis in this state and there's not enough funding and training and services available to adequately address this," Barksdale said.
According to District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale, the GBI investigation found that the two Hancock officers who arrested Grier committed no crime. He says he won't take the case to a grand jury.
"Quite frankly, it's not the sheriff's office that should be responding -- it should be medical professionals," Barksdale said.
Grier's parents told 13WMAZ this summer they want to see mental health cases treated differently.
"We need training for the police officers. We need someone to assist them if they don't get the training in it. They need somebody to assist them that can deal with people who have mental challenges," Marvin Grier said.
The family is still asking for an independent autopsy to determine Brianna's cause of death. This summer, the Grier family hired Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer, and said they were considering legal action against the county.
Monday, the family declined comment.