Video shows pepper ball shooting of inmate
Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor said Monday that dozens of changes have been made since two jailers repeatedly shot pepper balls at an inmate who later died.
“Hopefully, that will never be a problem again,” Taylor said.
The district attorney on Monday made public a video of both men firing pepper ball guns at the mentally troubled inmate early April 19, as soon as his cell door was opened.
Both were charged last week with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent determined “the ... use of force was not necessary at the time of the incident.”
The inmate, Charlton Cash Chrisman, 40, of Yukon, died April 19 of “agitated delirium due to acute methamphetamine intoxication,” according to an autopsy report. A contributing factor in the death was “multiple pepper ball injuries.”
The defendants, Colton A. Ray, 26, and Brian E. Harrison, 33, no longer work at the jail.Both were on a special response team.
Ray, a staff sergeant, resigned Aug. 8. Harrison, a detention officer, was fired Thursday after being charged. Harrison pleaded not guilty Monday and is free on bond.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater made the decision
himself to charge both with a felony. He alleges each shot Chrisman with a pepper ball gun “without justifiable or excusable cause.”
Key to his decision was a review of the video. He released a copy to The Oklahoman pursuant to an Open Records Act request.
The video shows Chrisman rushing out of his cell and slipping and sliding down a jail corridor where several officers restrain him. Both Ray and Harrison can be seen standing in front of the cell door with their pepper balls guns raised as the cell door is opened. They then can be seen firing the pepper ball guns over and over.
Both admitted to shooting the inmate as soon as his cell door was open, the OSBI agent reported.
Chrisman had been jailed the day before after crashing his pickup into the emergency room waiting area of an Oklahoma City hospital,
police reported.
The sheriff would not say much about the jail incident because the inmate’s estate is suing him, county commissioners and others in Oklahoma City federal court.
“There’s been moves made, people taken out of that unit totally, training is different,” Taylor said. “Numerous things have changed since that incident.”
Chrisman flooded his cell by breaking off a sprinkler head but the water had been turned off by the time the special response team arrived. He was in there alone.
His family alleges in the lawsuit that jailers failed to address his obvious mental instability and then used excessive force in violation of his civil rights.
Chrisman was having hallucinations that his ex-wife and children were at the jail, according to the lawsuit. He had been screaming and punching the walls.