Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez fired 11 employees and put six more on unpaid suspension in connection to the in-custody death of a Black man in February, Gonzalez announced Friday.
A Texas sheriff’s office has fired 11 jail employees and suspended six others over the February death of a 23-year-old inmate who was allegedly stripped and beaten during the Lone Star State’s severe winter storm.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters Friday that the employees who were let go “betrayed my trust and the trust of our community.”
The sheriff’s office had launched an investigation into the incident involving Jaquaree Simmons, who was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head and a brain bleed a day after jail workers allegedly repeatedly beat the man, out of security cameras’ view.
HOUSTON (AP) Eleven employees with a Texas sheriff’s office have been fired and six others suspended following the February death of an inmate who was hit multiple times in the head by detention officers, authorities announced Friday.