The estate of a man who died while in police custody has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.
Patricia Myers, who is the personal representative of the estate of Exzabian Myers, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District for South Carolina Aiken Division on May 3 in the death of Exzabian Myers, who died while in the custody of police.
The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office and deputies Tyler W. Roberts, William Sutton and Andrew Dailey are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed in the Aiken County Court of Common Pleas, then moved to federal court, court records show.
The filing alleges an excessive force violation, negligence and gross negligence and the violation of the Eighth and 14th amendments.
The lawsuit states Deputy Roberts used force against Exzabian Myers in the form of three taser discharges on his body and Exzabian Myers didn’t present any threat of harm to Roberts or other officers.
The lawsuit said the use of force was gratuitous, unlawful and offensive to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and Roberts should have been aware of the constitutional prohibition against the use of excessive force.
Before Exzabian Myers died, he suffered pain, mental anguish and shock due to Roberts’ actions, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that Roberts’ actions also caused the death of Exzabain Myers.
The lawsuit states Roberts and Sutton violated the Eighth and 14th Amendments for not rendering medical aid and failing to intervene.
According to the lawsuit, sheriff’s office deputies breached their duty of care by using a taser on Exzabian, failing to summon medical assistance based on the deceased’s symptoms, failing to restrain Exzabian Myers, failing to stop Ezxabian Myers from hitting his head against the cage, transporting him with his face down on his stomach, failing to immediately sit him upright to ensure he could breathe, falling to monitor him, failing to perform CPR, failing to seek or provide medical care and failing to follow department policies and procedures concerning handling individuals in Exzabian’s Myers circumstances.
The lawsuit said Exzabian Myers’ death was the direct and proximate result of the deputies’ grossly negligent, reckless, willful and wanton acts.
The sheriff’s office is liable for the torts of its employees during the performance of their official duties and the plaintiffs are entitled to recover actual damages against the sheriff’s office to compensate the statutory beneficiaries and estate , the lawsuit states.
The plaintiff wants a jury trial and his estate states it is entitled to recover actual and punitive damages, the lawsuit said.
Myers’ arrest
On March 18, 2021 police responded to a possible carjacking and that a subject was attempting to enter several vehicles, with stopped traffic, according to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.
The lawsuit identified Exzabian Myers as the person who was blocking traffic at Ergle and Marshall streets in Graniteville.
Exzabian Myers was sweating and confused and sat on the hood of a gray Mercedes vehicle and shouted, “Call the police,” according to the lawsuit.
Sutton was dispatched to the location and found Exzabian Myers in a state of distress; according to Sutton, Exzabian said he was high and asked to be taken to jail, the lawsuit said.
Sutton then placed handcuffs on Exzabian Myers and detained him, after being restrained, Exzabian began to resist and ran into oncoming traffic, according to the lawsuit.
Sutton and other responding officers were able to detain Exzabian Myers and carry him to a patrol car, where he was placed in the backseat; however Exzabian Myers remained manic and officers struggled to get his legs into the vehicle, the lawsuit said.
Roberts then used a Taser in the hopes of gaining compliance from Exzabian Myers to get him safely into the vehicle, the report said.
The lawsuit said Ezabian Myers was stunned three times and a witness on the scene said, “You almost killed him bro,” the report said.
No medical aid was summoned, even though the Exzabian Myers indicated he was high and having symptoms consistent with delirium, the lawsuit said.
Exzabain Myers he was not placed in a seatbelt or transported to Aiken Regional Medical Centers, the lawsuit said.
Sutton asked Exzabian Myers what drugs did he had taken, before Exzabian Myers began screaming and hitting his head more than 50 times against the cage while violently flailing around in the back seat, according to the lawsuit.
Sutton pulled his vehicle into a business on Trolly Line Road and asked for a supervisor, the report said.
Exzabian Myers continued flailing in the back seat, turning himself upside down, resulting in his head ending up on the floorboard with one leg on the back of the seat and his other leg on the seat, the lawsuit said.
Exzabian Myers then stopped moving, , the lawsuit said.
Dailey placed his fingers on Exzabian Myers’s neck and indicated he was not breathing, the lawsuit said.
The incident report said an officer on scene requested emergency medical services.
Neither officer attempted to perform CPR and after several unsuccessful efforts to rouse Exzabian Myers, NARCAN was administered but was unsuccessful in resuscitating him.
He was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead.
Exzabian Myers’ cause of death was positional asphyxia with the contributing factor of excited delirium with the mechanism of death being entrapped while thrashing in the rear of the patrol vehicle while under the influence of cocaine, the lawsuit said.
Capt. Eric Abdullah with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office and the plaintiff’s attorneys declined to comment on ongoing litigation.