Crawford Co. Detention Center surveillance video shows what happened before man died
By Brett Rains
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CRAWFORD COUNTY, Arkansas (KHBS, KHOG) — Surveillance video from inside the Crawford County Detention Center shows what happened before a man died less than 24 hours after he was booked into jail.
More than 20 hours of video was obtained by 40/29 News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Jacob Jones, 26, was arrested and booked into the detention center just before 4 p.m. on Oct. 14. Surveillance video showed jailers and paramedics performing CPR on Jones approximately 20 hours later.
Van Buren police dash camera video showed Jones and his uncle appearing to swallow bags of an unknown substance while in the back of a patrol vehicle. A traffic stop led to the two men’s arrest once officers learned they had active arrest warrants.
His mother, Catherine Jones, told 40/29 News it took several hours before Jones received medical attention while in jail. “My brother was with him. He would beat on the doors, other people would beat in the doors and try to wave at the cameras or whatever and try to get them to come back there and they would say they were sending somebody and they would never send them,” she said.
The surveillance video obtained by 40/29 News did not support those claims.
Video from inside the jail pod showed Jones’s uncle standing in line for a lunch tray at noon.
Crawford County Sheriff Jim Damante told 40/29 News the uncle asked jailers to check on Jones. The video shows jailers checking on the 26-year-old man and then carrying Jones out of the pod and rushing him into the main booking area of the detention center where jailers started CPR. Paramedics arrived approximately seven minutes later.
Damante said Jones had a weak pulse when he was transported by ambulance to the hospital, where Jones was pronounced dead. Preliminary results from the medical examiner’s office showed he died from a drug overdose, but the specific substance has not yet been confirmed, according to Damante.
Attorney’s representing the Jones family told 40/29 News they are still reviewing the surveillance video and will issue a statement once their review is complete.
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