Lawsuit Alleges Man Dies After Arrest Instead of Hospitalization for Critical Blood Pressure

A lawsuit filed by a California family claims that law enforcement officers were responsible for the death of a man whose blood pressure was dangerously high. Instead of taking him back to the hospital, they brought him to jail after he fled an emergency room. The lawsuit has recently advanced past a dismissal attempt in federal court.

The family of 29-year-old Abdul Kamara alleges that he died on March 3, 2024, in the sallyport of the Vista Detention Facility. They claim that officers ignored a doctor’s directive to return him to Scripps Memorial Hospital. This information is detailed in the family’s legal complaint.

According to the lawsuit, “Abdul should have never been at the Vista Detention Facility.” Just hours before his death, Carlsbad police and paramedics had transported Abdul to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas due to concerns about his physical and mental health.

After Abdul left the emergency room at Scripps Hospital, staff contacted the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for help in finding him, worried about his health and safety. The complaint states his blood pressure was at a concerning 181/116 when he left the hospital.

The lawsuit claims that hospital personnel instructed the police to return Abdul for a medical hold and evaluation once found. They informed officers that he was experiencing paranoia, delusions, and was unable to ensure his own safety.

The family’s legal team asserts that there was no evidence Abdul had committed any crime, had any outstanding warrants, or had harmed anyone, yet law enforcement chose to take him to jail instead of back to the hospital.

Less than one hour after he fled from the ER, police allegedly encountered Abdul at a Valero gas station in Cardiff acting erratically, which was about 1 mile away from Scripps Hospital. Kamara was “crawling on the ground of the parking lot without shirt and shoes while wearing a hospital wristband” and making “nonsensical statements,” according to the complaint.

Deputies allegedly knew Kamara was a hospital patient who had run out of the ER and was not able to care for himself or make sound decisions, the complaint alleges.

“They knew the ER physician and nurses wanted Abdul returned to the hospital for a medical hold because he needed to be evaluated,” the document says. “But instead of returning Abdul to the hospital for medical assessment and treatment, as they had been instructed to do by a doctor, deputies decided to arrest Abdul for being ‘under the influence,’ a misdemeanor, and book him into the Vista Detention Facility.”

Instead of receiving the medical care he “desperately needed,” Kamara died hours later at the jail, according to his family. The medical examiner’s office determined his cause of death to be complications of resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to acute methamphetamine intoxication with sickle cell anemia as a contributing factor.

Physical exertion and agitation were cited as possibly causing a sickle cell crisis that restricted blood flow, according to the ME’s office.

“Abdul had not resisted any officer commands; had not threatened any officer; did not flee; and had not acted in a threatening manner,” the complaint concludes. “Abdul only acted in a bizarre, paranoid manner that evidenced distress and illness.”

While police did not have probable cause to believe Kamara had committed any crime, they decided to take him into custody anyway and subjected him to physical force while at the local jail facility, his family alleges, adding he “urgently needed medical care,” per the complaint.

“For approximately seven minutes, six officers placed their bodyweight and downward force on Abdul who weighed only 136 lbs,” the complaint says. “Abdul had been compliant and cooperative with officers’ commands before the use of force. He was handcuffed and sitting on a bench. The officers’ use of force was precipitated by a fall — Abdul fell over while trying to stand up. This led six officers to use compressional force to restrain Abdul who was eventually placed in a WRAP restraint device and left on the ground.”

None of the deputies asked for Kamara to be medically assessed or evaluated, despite nurses and doctors being present at the jail facility, according to his family. “No one rendered aid to Abdul,” their complaint alleges. “His head had been injured so badly that Abdul suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Although Abdul should have been seated upright or placed in a standing position, officers left him laying on the ground.”

While being taken into custody, Kamara allegedly began to “scream, kick, and flail,” which police officials cited as the reason for physically restraining him “to prevent Kamara from injuring himself and others,” according to an incident report filed by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

Kamara’s family says he was “paranoid and agitated” while riding in the back of a patrol car. “He bounced around in the back seat … and hit his head on the plexiglass separating the back seat from the front seat,” the complaint notes. “Abdul suffered a cut on his head that began to bleed.”

The DA’s office insisted that there were “no obvious signs of medical distress” in Kamara while declining to pursue any criminal charges against the officers involved.

“Based upon our review of the totality of the facts and circumstances, the law enforcement personnel involved in Kamara’s restraint did not apply unreasonable or excessive force that resulted in his death,” the DA’s office concluded.

Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia ruled that the lawsuit filed by Kamara’s family could proceed as he denied a motion to dismiss filed by San Diego County and its lawyers. Battaglia ruled that the family’s arguments are “meritorious” and their lawyers have shown enough evidence to allege that failures by San Diego County sheriff’s deputies led to Kamara’s death.

The sheriff’s office told Law&Crime on Monday that it “cannot comment at this time” on Battaglia’s ruling or the case as the matter “involves pending litigation.”