Lawyer: Man who died in homeless sweep suffered severe injuries

The attorney for the family of Cornelius Taylor, the man who died during a clearing of a homeless encampment, said an interview with a Fulton County Medical Examiner official suggests Taylor suffered severe injuries before he died.

Civil rights lawyer Mawuli Davis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that the interview with the pathologist directly contradicted the narrative in an initial police incident report, which suggested there was no indication Taylor was badly hurt and that he may have overdosed on drugs.

He said the medical examiner official told the law firm Wednesday that Taylor’s pelvic bone was completely fractured, or broken in half, and that his liver and spleen were both crushed. According to the attorney, the medical examiner is still awaiting the results of a toxicology report.

“He had substantial internal hemorrhaging — bleeding internally — and those injuries were fatal,” Davis said.

According to witnesses, Taylor died Jan. 16 after he was struck or crushed by an Atlanta Department of Public Works construction vehicle as he slept in his tent. The incident report states that an overdose was suspected and that a witness saw Taylor taking crack cocaine. The report notes that no drugs were found at the scene and does not detail any drug paraphernalia.

In a statement, Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesperson Marian Green stated that the attending pathologist the law firm interviewed was Shamaya Creagh-Winters.

“The pathologist’s report is not available at this time, and I cannot confirm what was discussed between the pathologist and the family’s attorney. I have no additional information at this time regarding the case,” Green wrote.

The Atlanta Police Department published the officer’s initial incident report earlier this week. But the medical examiner has yet to release a final report on its findings. It can take up to 90 business days for a finalized report, according to the county.

Davis said Taylor’s family had been “heartbroken” by an initial incident report that seemed to downplay the extent of Taylor’s injuries and appeared to attribute the death to an overdose. Officer Jonathan Allen said Taylor emerged from his tent in distress and with a bloody nose but that there were no “other obvious signs of physical hurt.”

“This initial report was very hurtful to the family, and it was an attempt to distract, mislead, to try in the court of public opinion to assassinate his character and make it seem as if Mr. Taylor was responsible for his own demise,” Davis said.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

At a news conference Thursday afternoon at the Davis Bozeman Johnson law office in Decatur, Taylor’s surviving cousin, Darlene Chaney, said reading the initial incident report was traumatizing for the family. She accused the police of trying to tarnish Taylor’s character.

“When you first hear about it, he’s crushed, you can’t accept it. But you try to process it. Then you read the report that says it was just a nosebleed … I was there. I’ve seen nosebleeds, and you don’t die from that type of blood. You die from the blood that I saw on the ground,” Chaney said.

Attorney Harold W. Spence said the law firm interviewed the pathologist because they wanted to determine the nature of Taylor’s injuries, whether they were consistent with being struck by a construction vehicle, and whether they caused his death.

Spence said Creagh-Winters had struggled to explain the severity of the injuries, so she asked the lawyers to stand and put their hands on their hips. She told them to take their left hands and draw a line diagonally across their pelvis to their right sides.

“That diagonal line was where his pelvis was not fractured, but split. It was torn asunder. That’s how she explained it to us,” Spence said. “Would an overdose produce a lacerated spleen or liver? No, it would not.

Police have stressed that the investigation is ongoing and clarified that the initial incident report by the officer on the scene was not a death investigation report, which homicide detectives are handling. The AJC has reached out to the police department for comment.

Davis has said that his firm is demanding the release of any existing police body camera footage to the family before it is made public.

Police said officers responded around noon to the encampment at 300 Old Wheat St. NE after receiving a call that someone was injured.

An ambulance took Taylor to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

Since Taylor’s death, there have been calls to end homeless encampment clearings, which some advocates have called cruel and inhumane.

Mayor Andre Dickens said he was backing a moratorium on camp clearings and a review of the city’s policies and procedures.

“I’ve spoken to a number of Mr. Taylor’s family members and expressed my condolences and discussed the next steps,” Dickens said this past Friday. “I am deeply saddened by this incident, and my heart goes out to all who knew and loved him. But more than that, my heart breaks for every Atlantan without a roof over their heads.”

Chaney, flanked by other surviving family members, including Taylor’s mother Lois Taylor, said that after a funeral service at Ebenezer Baptist Church at 11 a.m. Monday, the family would lead a procession and take Taylor’s body in a horse-drawn carriage from the church to Atlanta City Hall.

“We’ve decided to do a horse-drawn carriage from Ebenezer to City Hall, so that City Hall can see who they killed. It is more than a body. He’s my brother. So we want to march there silently, almost like silent anger, so that they can all see us stand together as a city,” Chaney said.