Sources told News4 Fairfax
County Police detectives have been blocked access to the county's detention
center in their efforts to investigate an inmate's death.
However, a spokesman for the
Fairfax County Sheriff's office said the charge that detectives have been
blocked from the center is not true.
Natasha McKenna, 37, of
Alexandria was taken off life support Sunday, five days after she was stunned
at the Fairfax County jail, the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office said in a news
release.
McKenna was in the process of
being transported from the Fairfax County jail to the Alexandria city jail
Tuesday when deputies say she failed to comply with their commands and resisted
them. A deputy then used a Taser to restrain her, Lt. Steve Elbert said Monday.
An inmate was pulled off life
support Sunday after she had a medical emergency at the Fairfax County
Detention Center. (Published Sunday, Feb 8, 2015)
After being stunned, Elbert said
a medic checked on and cleared McKenna, and that she was then moved to another
area of the jail, where she began experiencing a medical emergency. Deputies
and medical staff began life-saving measures before McKenna was taken to a
hospital and put on life support.
Elbert said minutes passed
between when McKenna was stunned and her medical emergency but didn't know how
many. "It was not an immediate thing,'' he said.
Elbert declined to say how many
times the deputy stunned McKenna and where on her body she was hit. He also
declined to elaborate about how she resisted the deputies trying to transport
her.
The Fairfax County Police
Department is leading the investigation into McKenna's death, agency spokesman
Bud Walker said Monday. Walker also declined to discuss how many times McKenna
was stunned or where on her body she was hit, saying that won't be released
until the investigation is finished.
The Journal of the American Law
Enforcement Legal Center, which compiles information about court cases
involving the police, notes Tasers are commonly recognized as acceptable in use
for "involuntary cell extractions" when a prisoner reguses to leave
his or her cell.
The center has numerous
surveillance cameras and was recently featured on MSNBC's "Lock Up"
series.
Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey
Kincaid said in a statement Sunday that her office anticipates "a prompt
and comprehensive investigation.''
McKenna had been jailed since
Jan. 26 on a charge of assault on a police officer.
Published at 11:18 PM EST on
Feb 9, 2015
