Lt. Joel Garcia filmed Anthony Johnson Jr. as he lay handcuffed face-down on the floor of the Tarrant County Jail — and another jailer knelt on Johnson’s back.

The altercation with Johnson in 2024 wasn’t the first time a Tarrant County jailer knelt on someone who was already handcuffed. It wasn’t the first time Garcia watched that happen. And it wasn’t the first time the prisoner later died.

A KERA News investigation found Garcia was there when another jailer knelt on a prisoner named Derick Wynn, in 2019. Wynn was also face-down on the floor, in handcuffs. He became unresponsive, and he died soon after.

Both deaths occurred more than two decades after the U.S. Department of Justice published warnings against the dangers of kneeling on people who are restrained.

Johnson’s death — eventually declared a homicide by asphyxiation — was another scandal for a jail that has spent years under intense scrutiny. Local activists and elected officials have criticized the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, for a spike in deaths, as well as allegations of mistreatment and neglect of vulnerable prisoners.

Sheriff Bill Waybourn condemned Johnson’s treatment at a press conference a month after his death, where he showed reporters Garcia’s cell phone video.

“Once he’s restrained, the knee should have never went on the back,” he said.

Wynn’s death five years earlier did not get the same level of public scrutiny as Johnson’s. A medical examiner blamed Wynn’s death on mixed drug intoxication. It’s unclear whether the doctor who performed the autopsy took the restraint into consideration.

The sheriff’s office refuses to answer questions about Wynn’s death. Spokesperson Laurie Passman provided a written statement that denied any wrongdoing and claimed “a knee properly placed to control a combative individual” is different than kneeling on someone.

“There is no indication noted by the investigator that the technique was done improperly, nor does the medical examiner rule that as a contributing factor in his death,” Passman said.

The sheriff’s office’s training documents, also obtained by KERA News, say new jailers should not be taught to place a knee on someone’s upper back — for safety reasons.

Derick Wynn’s short but troubled jail stay

Through public records requests, KERA News obtained jail security camera footage and more than 100 pages of records about Derick Wynn’s incarceration and death, including written reports from approximately 30 jailers and a death investigation summary from the Texas Rangers.

The records reveal Wynn’s nine hours in jail were punctuated with violence, including altercations with jailers who would later be connected to other in-custody deaths: Garcia and then-Sgt. Sheldon Kelsey, who knelt on his back.

Wynn showed signs of distress and disorientation shortly after his arrest on Apr. 3, 2019. Before being booked into jail, he spent a few hours being observed at John Peter Smith Hospital, after he appeared to be clutching his chest, according to the Texas Rangers investigation report.

Police transferred Wynn to jail custody in the early morning hours of Apr. 4. During a jail mental health screening, Wynn seemed confused about where he was, the report continues. He kept asking for police, “because his daughter had fallen down the stairs.” When told he was in jail, he said, “No I’m not.”

Wynn denied using drugs, according to the investigation records — though the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office would later determine he died of mixed methamphetamine and cocaine intoxication.

Dr. Alon Steinberg is a cardiologist who studies why prone restraint — the law enforcement term for restraining someone face-down — can be deadly. Using meth, cocaine or other drugs heightens the danger because of the added stress it puts on the body, he said. It can make people breathe harder and require more blood circulation.

“Then when you combine that with prone restraint, which decreases both factors, that could be potentially very dangerous,” Steinberg said.

Drugs can also make people struggle more against law enforcement, Steinberg said — making the likelihood of a restraint that much higher.

Wynn resisted jailers all day, they would later report. Around 8:30 a.m., detention officers pepper sprayed him after he grabbed onto a door handle and wouldn’t let go, according to Kelsey’s written statement. One jailer sprained his wrist during the struggle, according to the investigation records.

One jailer pepper-sprayed Wynn in the face, but he kept resisting, Kelsey wrote. So Kelsey pepper-sprayed him in the face, too.

Four months later, Kelsey would pepper spray another man, Robert Miller, who died afterwards, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The county medical examiner’s office blamed Miller’s death on a sickle cell crisis. Experts who spoke to the Star-Telegram refuted the conclusion Miller had sickle cell disease and said Miller likely died after multiple jailers pepper sprayed him at close range.

After that investigation, the county contracted with an outside expert to look at Miller’s autopsy. KERA News discovered the expert never received any materials. The county has never explained why the independent review didn’t happen.

Kelsey did not respond to requests for an interview for this story.

Wynn complained of a burning sensation for hours after his pepper spraying, accusing jailers of pouring gasoline on him, according to their reports. He was escorted to his first court appearance barefoot with his ankles restrained, his hands behind his back and his red jumpsuit drenched, jail security video shows.

Several jailers noted how much he was sweating, including Joel Garcia.

“During arraignment Inmate Wynn was accusing me of setting him on fire while I stood behind him,” Garcia wrote, adding he suspected Wynn was still suffering from the effects of the pepper spray.

After his court appearance, jailers brought Wynn back to his cell and laid him on the ground, with his head facing the cell door. This is a common technique used on people who are struggling against the removal of restraints, one jailer later reported. Garcia said Wynn was kicking and “being combative.”

“I stepped in to assist Sgt. Garcia,” Kelsey wrote. “I placed my left knee in between his shoulder blades.”

Of all the reports, only Garcia and Kelsey himself mention that Kelsey knelt on Wynn. Other jailers say Kelsey helped restrain Wynn’s upper body, or they don’t mention Kelsey at all.

It’s not clear how long Kelsey knelt on Wynn. Footage from a hallway camera shows Kelsey pushing past other jailers to get into the cell and kneeling down, but a jailer in front of the cell door blocks the rest of the altercation. Kelsey left the cell after about 80 seconds.

As they got the restraints off, Garcia noticed blood on the floor, “which appeared to be coming from Inmate Wynn,” he wrote.

After leaving the cell, the jailers realized something was wrong. Wynn made no attempt to get up. He did not respond to his name.

Garcia ordered another officer to open the cell door again. He shook Wynn, who lay in the fetal position breathing but unresponsive. He called a medical emergency, and jailers cuffed him again, “just in case he was to regain consciousness and began to fight,” Garcia wrote.

Security camera footage shows jailers carrying Wynn’s limp body out into a hallway. Wynn lay motionless on the floor as someone who appeared to be medical staff gave him chest compressions. A crowd of jailers gathered around, overflowing out of a nearby doorway.

MedStar first responders arrived and brought Wynn to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was placed in the ICU in “life-threatening condition,” according to a sergeant on duty at JPS. He would die early the next morning, on April 5.

Jails have to report every in-custody death to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Wynn’s death report noted he resisted officers but doesn’t mention the struggle in his cell.

“Officers were able to place Wynn in his cell and shut the cell door without a major confrontation,” the report reads.

Wynn’s brother, Louis Scott, shared a series of family photos over text message, which show Wynn was truly loved, he said.

In the photos, Wynn poses with his family and grins for the camera. His obituary memorialized his huge smile and his laugh, which could “light up a room.” He touched everyone’s life he came across, and he was ready to help “just by the mere mention,” it says.

Scott sent photos of Wynn’s grave, too, adorned with flowers. His headstone refers to him as a beloved son and brother.

The dangers of restraint

Kelsey did not respond to requests for an interview. After KERA News contacted him via his county email, sheriff’s office spokesperson Laurie Passman responded telling the reporter to direct all questions to the media relations department.

Garcia’s attorneys also did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages requesting an interview.

The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office maintains no one did anything wrong while restraining Wynn. Outside sources who say otherwise don’t have the proper details or context, Passman wrote in a statement.

“The [Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office] and the Texas Rangers are highly trained and relied upon to do thorough investigations,” she said. “There is no reason to doubt their conclusion of an investigation.”

In Texas, deaths in custody must be investigated by an outside law enforcement agency — in Wynn’s case, the Texas Rangers. Ranger Ike Upshaw reviewed jailers’ accounts and video footage for his investigation. In his report, he notes a jailer knelt on Wynn, but he does not express concern about it.

Law enforcement experts who spoke to KERA News agreed it is unnecessary and dangerous to kneel on someone who is already handcuffed.

“I don’t know why you would need to put weight on someone’s back when you are taking them out of restraints,” said Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, a use of force expert and a former police officer.

Gary Raney is the former sheriff of Ada County, Idaho, which includes Boise. He now works with troubled jail systems to improve conditions. He said he couldn’t think of a time when kneeling on someone in order to remove restraints would follow generally accepted policy and training.

“If they’re so violent you have to kneel on them, they probably shouldn’t be removed from restraints,” he said.

It can also be dangerous to leave someone handcuffed, because if they fall, they can’t catch themselves, Raney said. But he emphasized there are alternatives, like getting someone in a device called a restraint chair — though he acknowledged they have their own dangers from misuse.

Wynn died a year before the murder of George Floyd kicked off protests against racism and police brutality around the globe. Floyd, a Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck while Floyd said over and over again, “I can’t breathe.”

But law enforcement has known kneeling on someone can be deadly for decades. The U.S. Department of Justice warned about the dangers in a bulletin back in 1995.

“As soon as the subject is handcuffed, get him off his stomach. Turn him on his side or place him in a seated position,” the bulletin advised. “If he continues to struggle, do not sit on his back.”

Still, stories of deaths after police kneel on someone have piled up. George Floyd in Minneapolis. Angelo Quinto in California. Tony Timpa in Dallas.

The Associated Press identified more than 1,000 people who died after police used force that isn’t meant to kill. At least 740 cases involved prone restraint, and in about half of those, officers pinned the person down after they were already handcuffed, “often pressing with knees or hands when the person was controlled.”

Most people won’t die from being restrained prone, but it is dangerous, forensic pathologist Dr. Victor Weedn said. He studies the effects of prone restraint, alongside the cardiologist Steinberg.

Weedn reviewed Wynn’s autopsy for this story. Besides noting abrasions on his back, the autopsy report gives no indication the medical examiner’s office considered the restraint as a possible factor in Wynn’s death, he said.

“It’s not a very remarkable autopsy, but that’s what we’ve seen in these restraint deaths,” Weedn said. “It’s often just superficial injuries indicating the struggle, and that’s about it.”

Medical examiners always need to take altercations with police into account, Weedn said.

“Typically what happens is, the person is alive, they’re in apparent good health — which may not be the best health — but they’re doing their thing, breathing their oxygen, eating their food, talking to people, you know, doing whatever,” he said. “Then there’s a police interaction and they’re dead. It suggests that there’s a cause and relationship here.”

Dr. Marc Krouse performed Wynn’s autopsy and determined he died of mixed methamphetamine and cocaine intoxication. When KERA reached out to him for an interview, he responded with an email, saying the drug levels in Wynn’s system “were most notable.” He did not respond to questions about whether he considered the restraint or even knew about it.

The Star-Telegram reported Krouse left the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2021 after he missed a bullet during an autopsy, kicking off an audit that found mistakes in 27 of his cases in 2020. In most instances, the mistakes did not impact the cause of death determination, according to the Star-Telegram.

At the time, Krouse’s attorney said the audit was not independent or impartial. Krouse did not respond to KERA’s request for comment on the audit.

The level of methamphetamine reported in Wynn’s body was not particularly high, according to Weedn, though he acknowledged even a small amount can be deadly.

“I’m absolutely positive, absolutely positive, people have that level of methamphetamine walking around,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be toxic.”

Sheriff’s training warns against restraint dangers

Although the sheriff’s office says there is no evidence that Kelsey knelt on Wynn improperly, their own training warns against placing a knee on someone’s upper back.

KERA News submitted a public records request for Tarrant County’s current jailer training curriculum as of 2024. The county then asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office for permission to keep the trainings secret, because people could read them and learn how to “anticipate and exploit weaknesses in the [Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office] staff and jail operations,” county attorneys argued in a letter to the AG.

Stoughton dismissed that argument.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.

There are legitimate reasons to withhold some police training information — like descriptions of undercover operations — but not physical techniques a jailer might use, Stoughton said.

“There’s this fantasy, I think, of criminals getting together and poring through the techniques and like, developing counter strategies, and that’s just not realistic,” he said.

The AG’s Office allowed some redactions but ordered the sheriff’s office to release the 477-page jailer lesson plan.

One training module on handcuffing underlines the importance of restraining someone safely.

“Instructor needs to emphasize placing the subject in the recovery position or in a sitting position after being restrained in an attempt to prevent positional asphyxia,” the training says.

The “recovery position” means placing someone on their side in a way that keeps their airways open.

The training notes jailers should not be taught to put a knee on someone’s shoulder. They might use a knee on someone’s lower back to get them into restraints, but the person needs to be put on their side or sat up right after.

Kelsey, the jailer who knelt on Wynn, is still employed by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. After KERA News reached out to him to request an interview, the sheriff’s office posted about him in a “Fun Fact Friday” post on Facebook, listing his favorite Christmas movie and go-to snacks. He has been promoted to captain, helping to “keep things running smoothly behind the scenes” at the main downtown jail, according to the post.

Garcia started at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office in 1999. The same year Wynn died, in 2019, a national sheriff’s association named Garcia Correctional Officer of the Year.

His career came to an end after the death of Anthony Johnson Jr. As a supervisor, it was Garcia’s responsibility to make sure Johnson was safe after he was cuffed, Sheriff Bill Waybourn said at the press conference following Johnson’s death.

“It’s okay to put a knee in the back until you get them restrained. Then what you do after that is immediately put them in the recovery position. Immediately,” he said. “And that didn’t happen.”

Garcia has been indicted for murder, alongside Rafael Moreno, who knelt on Johnson. Both men are awaiting trial.

Great Job Miranda Suarez | KERA & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.