As City Mulls Independent Investigation Into Marcus Smith’s Death, Tensions Run High by David Ford
3:28pm May 06, 2021 The Smith family in downtown Greensboro in 2015. From left to right: Marcus Smith, Mary Smith, George Smith, and Marcus’ brother Leonard Butler. Photo courtesy of Kim Smith.
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Greensboro’s City Council is weighing whether to open an independent investigation into the death of Marcus Deon Smith. The 38-year-old Black man died in police custody in 2018 after being wrestled to the ground, hands and feet bound together, face down on the pavement. Since his death, activists in the community have demanded justice calling him “Greensboro’s George Floyd.” The case has prompted some councilmembers to more closely examine the city’s broader policing practices.
A newly released medical report verifies
that homicide was the primary cause of Marcus Smith’s death.
Smith, who was picked up by Greensboro police in September of 2018, later died after being immobilized by officers using a controversial restraining method similar to a hogtie.
The eight-page medical report by the chief medical examiner for the state of Georgia, Kris Sperry, concludes “the manner of death should be classified as a homicide.
But no settlement has been reached in the Smith family’s federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.
Members of the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, Justice Coalition, and others claim that some city council members continue pointing to Smith’s pre-existing health issues, denying any wrongdoing by police.
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