‘From crisis to death’: Probing teen’s last, desperate hours

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — “Y’all here to protect me,” the youth requested the officers, beseechingly. “Right?”

The 17-year-old’s foster father, unable to cope with a teen who appeared to be within the throes of schizophrenia, had known as Wichita police. When they arrived, Cedric “C.J.” Lofton refused to go away the porch and go together with them; he was obstinate however afraid, meek however frantic.

After an hourlong stalemate, the police misplaced persistence. It was time to take him away — by drive, if mandatory.

And so started the final two days of a life affected by household dysfunction, brushes with the regulation, years in foster care and, lastly, psychological sickness. The occasions main to C.J.’s demise, only a day in need of his 18th birthday, could be captured on video; the consequence could be litigation, pleas for reform, cries that the system had failed yet one more Black youth.

Authorities would resolve towards any prosecutions in connection along with his demise. But there have been essential errors, and important holes within the security web that had deadly penalties.

Owing to the hour, a group that included a psychological well being employee was unavailable to reply on that evening final September; police alone responded. And C.J. was taken not to a psychological hospital however to the county Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center, the place for about 40 minutes he was held face down, leading to his demise.

C.J. “went from crisis to death because we got involved,” stated Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell.

“We all need to own what we did right and what we did wrong,” he added. “And the reality is there’s things that happened that were wrong.”

Friends who met C.J. in foster care described him as a goofball, enjoyable loving, with a darkish childhood that he hinted at however by no means talked about a lot.

“He would dance everywhere, just wiggly, just you know, no coordination at all. Just dancing just to dance,” stated Skylar Mannie, 16, of Wichita.

But below the floor, she sensed anxieties. “He worried about making sure that he was safe, making sure everybody around him was safe and that they were good at all times.”

He was raised with the assistance of his grandmother. His father, Chadrick Lofton, racked up a number of convictions for home assault; one case despatched him to jail for a yr and a half when C.J. was 2, and after that, C.J. instructed associates, his father wasn’t round. His mom, Sarah Harrison, additionally had a legal document, together with a theft conviction in Texas that carried a 400-day sentence.

As he entered his teen years, C.J. was dwelling along with his mom in Junction City, a Kansas city of about 22,000 close to the Fort Riley army base. In the summer season of 2018, at age 14, he started to get in hassle.

He was accused first of utilizing a stolen debit card, then with stealing a automotive and instruments, courtroom data present. At a soccer sport that fall, he was caught with a BB gun and suspended from faculty; he was truant typically, the courtroom filings present.

Then, in November, he was accused of battery and stealing a online game from a Walmart and was despatched to a juvenile detention facility. Court data famous that his “behavior is escalating and there is no parental control,” however he was launched to his mom that December.

He broke curfew many times. Ultimately, a decide signed an order eradicating Lofton from his house, noting there was “no parent/guardian present.” By August 2019, a courtroom submitting discovered that he was doing “very well” in foster care.

C.J. moved round at first, associates stated. But in December 2020, he was positioned in Wichita with a foster father that his buddy, Marquez Patton, described as “one of the good ones.”

By all accounts, they acquired alongside. C.J.’s foster father instructed investigators that he had been doing high quality in class and that there have been no main points till their remaining weeks collectively, in accordance to a report by Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett.

The foster father, whose title hasn’t been launched, declined an interview request by way of DCCCA Inc., a non-public foster care company that contracts with the state’s Department of Children and Families.

During the pandemic-disrupted 2020-21 faculty yr, C.J. grew to become a favourite of Traci Kallhoff, a zoology instructor at Wichita Southeast High School. He was at all times asking questions, typically tossing a blanket over his head to enliven digital instruction.

“Some of those kids, like when they’re kind of like that, you know, like a little ornery, but really just so full of life, they just kind of grab your heart,” she stated, including that they grew so shut that he emailed over summer season break and hugged her when lessons resumed within the fall.

Patton, 22, met C.J. after they labored on the identical McDonald’s. He stated amongst different issues, the pair bonded over music — C.J. posted his personal basic gangster rap on YouTube, filled with references to shootings and bloodshed.

Indeed, C.J. had been a part of a Junction City gang, associates stated. “Gangs are like a family,” Patton stated, however C.J. had vowed to go away that behind and “do better.” The lyrics had been merely what offered, he instructed associates.

He began relationship Kyanya Hardyway in June 2021. Her household “loved him,” she stated, as a result of he was so respectful. They went to the mall, the YMCA and church collectively.

Eventually, although, he began telling her and different associates that he was listening to issues, that the world was going to finish quickly. It anxious her. But she added: “I was just glad that he was just telling me stuff.”

Friends stated C.J. deliberate to stay in foster care till he completed highschool. But he was rising stressed as he ready to age out of the system. Two associates had already been compelled from the foster placement after getting in hassle, Patton stated.

Then, final August, his grandmother died in Texas. Cassandra Harrison’s demise was a blow.

His foster father stated when Cedric returned from the funeral in September, “it got progressively worse,” in accordance to the prosecutor’s report. He described him as “paranoid.”

Friends noticed the distinction, too.

“He was really sad. He felt like he didn’t really have anybody,” stated Angelee Phillips, an 18-year-old who additionally had frolicked in foster care.

She stated she knew he was smoking weed. His foster brothers additionally suspected he was doing medicine, presumably the artificial marijuana referred to as K2, though none had witnessed it firsthand. Partly, their suspicions stemmed from his unusual habits; one foster brother heard C.J. saying that his classmates had been robots intent on hurting him.

Tests carried out as a part of the post-mortem report got here up constructive for marijuana, nothing else.

By Sept. 22, the state of affairs was escalating. C.J. walked away from faculty that day and his foster father known as police to report him as a runaway.

“He has been telling people not to look in the mirror because it takes your soul,” he instructed a dispatcher, including that C.J. thought safety guards had been secret brokers that had been spying on him and that he doesn’t need anybody to come into his room as a result of he says the home is bugged.

Hardyway stated he known as her round 2 the subsequent morning. She may inform he was outdoors, however he refused to inform her the place.

“He was just telling me like he loved me and stuff and then he just hung up because his phone was about to die,” she recalled. They by no means spoke once more.

When C.J. returned house round 11:30 a.m. that Friday morning, the foster father instantly took him to the county’s psychological well being supplier for an analysis. But they by no means made it inside.

“He started freaking out and then ran off on me again,” the foster father instructed police.

He stated C.J. had talked about “he can get access to a gun.” He suspected the teenager had schizophrenia. Although C.J. hadn’t been recognized, a cousin had instructed the foster father that the situation ran within the household.

It was all an excessive amount of. The foster father instructed a caseworker he couldn’t deal with C.J. anymore.

C.J. didn’t notice that when he returned round 1 a.m. on Sept. 24. His foster father instructed C.J. to keep on the porch, that he was anxious about him. He known as police.

The neighborhood operates a program through which a psychological well being skilled, a regulation enforcement officer and a paramedic reply to emergent psychological well being crisis. But it solely operates from midday to 10 p.m., Tuesdays by way of Fridays.

That meant the unit was not obtainable when the foster father known as, and police had to go as an alternative — one of many first large missteps, stated Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse: “We’re expecting law enforcement to do way too much.”

Officers approached the home. What adopted performs out on physique digital camera video:

While the foster father makes an attempt to attain the after-hours foster care contacts, officers strive to persuade C.J. — who was additionally sick with COVID-19 — to allow them to take him to a psychological hospital.

“Hell no,” C.J. says.

Over and over, for practically an hour, they beg him to submit. C.J. provides to sleep outdoors. He factors at issues he alone sees, issues that don’t exist.

C.J., who had instructed his foster father that he feared police would shoot him, empties his pockets at one level — apparently, to present the officers he’s unarmed. Change clatters to the bottom.

“We don’t want your stuff,” an officer tells him.

An officer asks him once more concerning the hospital.

“The hospital,” C.J. says. “I thought you was talking about jail.”

The officer responds: “Not jail, just the hospital. … I promise you we would go there.”

But C.J. can have none of it. At 2:15 a.m., officers name for help. The 5-foot-10, 135-pound teenager continues to be refusing to budge.

The sergeant who responded to the scene would later clarify that he wasn’t keen to simply go away C.J. alone outdoors, in accordance to the prosecutor’s report: “We can’t walk away.”

They resolve to take C.J. forcibly.

This was one other mistake, stated Cruse and fellow commissioner Howell. “Where is this impatience coming from?” Howell requested.

In the video, C.J. screams and yells “help” over and over as officers seize for his arms.

“This is illegal,” C.J. says. “Isn’t it?”

Breathing closely, the officers order C.J. not to chunk, they’re there to assist.

Eventually the officers restrain him in one thing known as the WRAP, a tool comprised of a locking shoulder harness, leg restraints and ankle straps. The sheriff’s workplace describes it as a means to restrain an individual who’s uncontrolled in order that they don’t damage themselves or others.

C.J. is frantic. “They are going to kill me,” he screams, biting on the straps.

As the teenager is carried to the police cruiser, he might be heard muttering, repeatedly, “Kill yourself.”

The vacation spot was now not the psychological hospital. The sergeant later defined that he believed C.J. was too combative to take there, in accordance to the prosecutor’s report.

Instead, the car headed for the juvenile consumption heart. C.J. was accused of a number of counts of battering regulation enforcement officers.

“It shocks me how this child is telling you they are seeing things that don’t exist and an alternate decision, aside from taking him to the hospital, was made,” stated Brittany Brest, a neighborhood psychologist who’s overseeing a grant from the National Alliance on Mental Illness to higher help Kansas inmates.

Even one of many officers might be heard questioning the change of vacation spot in the course of the drive, arguing that C.J. would fare higher on the psychological hospital.

“It fixes whatever is wrong with him,” the officer says. The officers C.J. bit, he stated, had been “putting themselves in positions of being battered” as a result of they had been placing their arms in entrance of his mouth.

A second officer responds, merely, “It is not our call.”

They pull into the juvenile heart at 2:44 a.m. and a number of officers carry him inside. C.J. continues repeating “kill yourself” when he was faraway from the WRAP restraint round 3:40 a.m. Officers cautiously again out of the holding cell, leaving C.J. alone inside.

A juvenile employee later opened the door to the cell and instructed C.J. he “won’t be here that long” if he cooperated with being weighed and fingerprinted.

C.J., although, was nonetheless agitated. He walked out of his holding cell and tried to seize a pc monitor from the consumption counter, the prosecutor’s report stated.

Surveillance video from inside the power exhibits him resisting makes an attempt to place him again within the cell. At one level, he might be seen punching one of many juvenile detention staff within the head, knocking his glasses to the bottom.

The video, which accommodates no audio, exhibits detention staff wrestling him into the cell. The digital camera angle doesn’t supply a transparent view of what occurred subsequent.

But the prosecutor’s workplace stated workers shackled Lofton’s ankles round 4:29 a.m. and put him on his abdomen on the ground a couple of minutes later. One employee held C.J.’s ankles, one other his thighs and two others held down his arms.

C.J. struggled, saying he would “hex” workers and that he was Jesus, in accordance to the report.

A employee might be heard calling dispatch: The teen wanted to be taken to a hospital for psychological analysis.

Around 5:08 a.m., the employees managed to put C.J. in handcuffs so he could be prepared to be transported when police arrived, in accordance to the prosecutor’s report. He remained face down. The staff then heard what seemed like loud night breathing; they assumed he had drained himself out and fallen asleep.

But C.J. was removed from high quality. The loud night breathing was probably agonal respiratory, a typical signal of cardiac arrest, defined Dr. Michael Freeman, a forensic epidemiologist who testified within the George Floyd case.

“I think the biggest problem here is that the people who do the restraint don’t understand how dangerous what they’re doing is,” he stated.

C.J.’s COVID-19 an infection additionally would “contribute and make it even more dangerous,” stated Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic science professor at George Washington University. Weedn stated the issue is that folks can’t breathe quick sufficient or deep sufficient when they’re restrained face down to do away with carbon dioxide, particularly if they’re below stress.

But the employees knew none of this, insisting later that they had been utilizing restraints that that they had been taught. It took them about 5 minutes longer to discover one thing was unsuitable, roll C.J. on his again and begin chest compressions, in accordance to the prosecutor’s report.

They known as for assist. When the emergency crew arrived, he had no pulse. “I have one 17-year-old male post code red coming to you,” a paramedic known as in, after the crew managed to restart his coronary heart.

But his situation was grave, his blood stress simply 62 over 24. And two days later, he was lifeless. He by no means regained consciousness.

The remaining post-mortem, launched in December, listed C.J.’s explanation for demise as “complications of cardiopulmonary arrest sustained after physical struggle while restrained in the prone position.” The demise was declared a murder.

Sedgwick County/AP

In this picture from physique digital camera video supplied by Sedgwick County, workers members carry out CPR on Cedric “C.J.” Lofton, 17, in Wichita, Kan., on Sept. 24, 2021.

Andrew M. Stroth, the household’s legal professional, stated he’s making ready a “robust legal filing,” describing what occurred as “tragic on so many levels.”

Sedgwick County Corrections Director Glenda Martens additionally described what occurred as “tragic” in a information convention however stated that the corrections staff “acted well within the policy and the requirements of that policy” in restraining the teenager.

Meanwhile, interim Wichita Police Chief Lem Moore stated his division is wanting into the actions officers took when reserving the teenager. The FBI is also investigating, and Kansas’ governor ordered a overview of how the foster care system dealt with the case.

A process drive assembled collectively by the town and county reviewed C.J.’s demise. Its members, who embody a neighborhood NAACP official and a 20-year-old youth organizer, really useful a collection of adjustments, together with bettering coaching and psychological well being providers.

Bennett, the district legal professional, stated he struggled with whether or not an involuntary manslaughter cost was justified, however concluded in January that the state’s “stand-your-ground” regulation prevented him from pursuing it as a result of workers members had been defending themselves.

Robert Spitzer, creator of “Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights,” stated Bennett’s interpretation is a “perfectly logical application” of a regulation that he described as “deeply problematic.”

Bennett agrees, calling on the Legislature to change the regulation and elevating questions on practically everybody concerned in C.J.’s care, from the juvenile staff to the foster care system.

“This,” he stated, “should never have happened.”