Death of Natasha McKenna facts for kids

Natasha McKenna (January 9, 1978 – February 8, 2015) was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the video of the Fairfax County jail.

During a team's efforts to extract the mentally ill prisoner, who resisted, they tasered her four times while she was restrained. No charges were filed against the deputies who tasered McKenna, but the case became the subject of a federal civil rights investigation because of several related issues.

Early life

At the age of 12, McKenna was diagnosed with schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and depression. (Other sources say the diagnosis was made when she was 14 years old.) According to a family photograph, she was an honors graduate student from high school in Fairfax County.

She had a 7-year-old daughter.

Event

McKenna, a 37-year-old woman, was being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center by the Fairfax County Police Department and Fairfax County Sheriff's Office in Fairfax County, Virginia, due to an outstanding warrant issued over her suspected attack on a police officer in Alexandria, Virginia.

Fairfax County officials had notified Alexandria police, whom they expected to pick up the suspect. But, there was an unexplained week-long delay in their response, and Fairfax decided to transport the prisoner to Alexandria. They said her mental condition was deteriorating. In Alexandria, better assistance could be provided, namely, the resources (i.e., legal representation to petition for a mental health hold) that were required to be provided by the warrant-issuing city.

Due to the previous assault charge against her, when McKenna was taken out of her cell, she was restrained with her arms behind her back and in handcuffs, her legs shackled, and a spit mask placed over her head. 17 minutes into the 45-minute struggle to extract her from her cell, McKenna, who was 130 lb (59 kg) and 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) tall, was tasered. A sheriff's deputy used a stun gun to taser her four times because she wouldn't bend her knees to be put into a wheeled restraint chair.

Because she was classified as mentally ill, a specialized team was attempting to ready her for transport to Alexandria. The team was made up of six members of the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team ("SERT"); they were dressed in full-body biohazard suits and gas masks.

Shortly after being tasered, McKenna suffered cardiac arrest and lost consciousness. She was resuscitated by emergency responders while being taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital. There she was placed on life support. After five days, she was determined to be brain dead and was removed from life support. She was pronounced dead on February 8, 2015.

See also

• Excited delirium
• Taser safety issues
• List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, February 2015
• Fairfax County Police Department
• Fairfax County Sheriff's Office
• Correctional Emergency Response Team