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The family of one of the two mentally ill detainees in South Carolina who drowned in the flooded waters as a result of Hurricane Florence wants to know why the police tried to transport the women despite the obvious danger.
Windy Newton and Nicolette Green were transported by van to separate mental health facilities on Tuesday night after being involuntarily committed by doctors, the Horry County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The vehicle, operated by HCSO officers Joshua Bishop and Stephen Flood, was washed away by the floods near the Little Pee Dee River.
Officers managed to escape. But the two women, held at the back of the vehicle, drowned.
"I do not know if that was the way the van was positioned, against a guardrail or there was a pressure of water, but unfortunately they did not could open the doors of the vans and get out the women. " Sheriff Phillip Thompson told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Thompson added that MPs were able to bypass a barrier blocking the road, but that it has not been confirmed.
Marion County Coroner Jerry Richardson told HuffPost on Wednesday that the submerged van was to be left overnight with the women's bodies still inside because of the danger of rescuing the workers.
"It's always difficult, we have rising water, fast water, debris-infested water, dark water, and the car is completely submerged," Richardson said Wednesday. midday. The bodies were found later in the evening.
Richardson and Thompson both emphasized that women were not immobilized. However, the women would have had no way to escape without someone opening their doors from outside the vehicle, Richardson said.
"It's a sad situation everywhere," he added on Thursday.
Mr. Green's 43-year-old family on Thursday delivered challenging responses.
"MPs are supposed to take care of people in the back of their car," said Green's 19-year-old daughter, Rose Hershberger, at WMBF News.
Hershberger told the station that she had taken her mother – who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia – to the Waccamaw Mental Health Center on Tuesday to meet a therapist. But after 30 minutes, she was told that her mother would be hospitalized. Police said that a court order allowed them to transport Green and Newton.
In the statement provided by the police, the OSSC office cited two laws stating that agents are "authorized and required to take [the person] at the hospital designated by the certification. "
"She was like a normal mom and the best mother anyone could ask for," Hershberger told the station.
"We want answers," Green's sister Donnela Green-Johnson said in a Facebook post. "Why did the deputies cross the flooded waters? What happened to & # 39;Revolve around. Do not drown"Severe negligence robbed two families of their loved ones. We want those responsible to be held accountable. These women were neither detained nor criminals. These were women who voluntarily asked for help. They trusted hospitals and sheriffs with their lives and this trust was abused. We want answers.
Green-Johnson did not immediately respond to a comment request from HuffPost. But she added on Facebook that her intention was not to launch a "witch hunt to try to ruin the life of the deputies … we want answers".
HCSO and the Law Enforcement Division of South Carolina are investigating the incident. The two agents involved were put on administrative leave.
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