RIVERDALE, Ga. — A lawsuit against two Clayton County medical facilities was announced following an April shooting involving Riverdale Police, where a man who had been in their care was shot dead.
According to the lawsuit against Riverwoods Behavioral Health System and Southern Regional Medical Center (SRMC), 23-year-old Darryl Fussell II, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, was going through mental health struggles at the time of his death on April 13.
The family alleges the facilities provided "inadequate supervision and procedures" that allowed Fussell to leave the SRMC hospital, eventually leading to the deadly encounter with officers. The suit accuses the facilities of being "negligent in the nursing care and supervision" of the young man, even though they knew he was "a danger to himself and others and was unable to care for his physical health and safety."
In a statement to 11Alive, SRMC said:
Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the family impacted by this tragic event. The safety, health, and well-being of all patients is Southern Regional Medical Center’s top priority. Due to patient privacy laws and HIPAA, we are unable to discuss the care and treatment of a specific patient. Southern Regional Medical Center denies all allegations, and because this matter is now in litigation, we cannot make additional comments.
11Alive has also reached out to Riverwoods Behavioral Health System for a statement but has not heard back.
Fussell's father, also named Darryl, described his son as a great kid who loved children and pets, and who "was just suffering."
"We just never imagined that we would be up here telling everybody about our son in the past tense," said Fussell's father.
In the days preceding his death, his parents explained in the lawsuit that they'd noticed changes in his moods, adding that officers stopped Fussell in Barrow County while he was walking down University Parkway.
He was stopped, the suit states, because he was "noticeably sweating and disoriented," telling authorities he was walking to Athens. A field sobriety test was done, and he was cleared. Later, during that interaction, the lawsuit says Fussell stopped responding to officers and was taken to the Barrow County Detention Center as a pedestrian under the influence.
"During the confinement, Darryl started banging his head up against the cell bars, causing his head to bleed," the lawsuit states.
Fussell was placed at Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) in Gainesville, setting in motion his eventual transfer to Riverwoods and then SRMC.
He was admitted on April 9 around midnight, where documents show that "an emergency room physician’s provisional diagnosis was schizophrenia." It added that he was involuntarily committed to the psychiatric hospital for care and evaluation.
Later that morning, Fussell reportedly ran out of the facility through the front door of the emergency room. Hall County Police Department was notified, and he was found around an hour later. During this encounter with officers, the lawsuit said he was tased because "Darryl was a very strong young man and resisted returning to NGMC."
Reports from Hall Police put him down as a "sick person," and a day later, on April 10, it was decided by the mental health center that he needed to stay within the facility for inpatient psychiatric treatment.
The lawsuit states that Fussell was admitted into the Riverwoods psychiatric facility in Riverdale on April 11 and prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications.
Fussell was found unresponsive on April 12 in a chair; the lawsuit states he was examined around 9 p.m. His vital signs were found to be normal, but he did not answer questions from Clayton County Fire Emergency Services first responders.
It was at this time, the lawsuit alleges, that Riverwoods failed to notify either the first responders or SRMC - where he was about to be taken - that Fussell's psychiatric, legal status was as an involuntary commitment patient and that he had a high risk for elopement, a term to describe he was a risk to run away.
Instead, he was listed as a "non-emergent" transport - not an emergency - and taken to the non-emergent section of the SRMC emergency department.
A head scan was done, given a history of head injury and pulmonary embolism, and it came back positive. He said he'd not been taking his medication for the condition. Fussell was admitted to an SRMC hospital room on the fourth floor around 8:30 a.m. on the morning of April 13.
"It's these parents," said Jane Lamberti, with The Cochran Firm, pointing to Fussell's parents, "who are telling Southern Regional that their son has been involuntarily committed. It's these parents that are telling Southern Regional that their son is a threat to himself and to others."
Lamberti said that is when SRMC put a sitter on Fussell.
Later that day, Fussell's family received a call saying their loved one was unresponsive, later stating he was being treated for blood clots. After he was stable, Fussell was placed on suicide watch.
That's when the family decided to travel to the center, but on the way, around 2:50 p.m., they were told "there was no need to come to the hospital as Darryl had left the facility."
According to the suit, the facility told the Fussells they knew he left the building "because his heart monitor was found on the back deck of the hospital." The family still went to the hospital anyway, and say in the suit they went to his room where a nurse told them Fussell "refused the MRI, stated he did not need it and walked out of his room."
The suit alleges the hospital "failed to take immediate actions to keep Darryl from eloping, including, among other things, calling hospital security and initiating a hospital lockdown."
"He was on the fourth floor," said Lamberti. "'Did they notify hospital security?' No. 'Did they initiate what's called a hospital lockdown?' Absolutely not."
"After going down four flights of stairs, Darryl exited from the hospital," it states. It adds the parents began to try to search for their son, requesting help from a security guard who said he never received a notification about a patient leaving. "Mr. and Mrs. Fussell spent the next three hours combing the Riverdale area in search of their son Darryl."
According to the documents, Fussell reportedly began walking down the road to 6572 River Park Drive in Clayton County near a construction site. A police disturbance report said Fussell entered the active site, grabbed a hammer, and hit himself in the head multiple times before kneeling in the praying position.
A construction worker called authorities around 6:30 p.m., where they "allegedly found Darryl in the same 'praying position.'"
Reports claim that Fussell would not respond to law enforcement once they arrived and reached for a pair of scissors before lunging at an officer. That's when Fussell was shot multiple times.
"They had a responsibility to treat my son like they would treat their own son," said Fussell's mother. "And they treated him like a dog in the streets. And shot him dead nine times. Nine times, my baby. "
Medical records documented that Fussell had been shot at least nine times, according to the lawsuit: two to his right anterior chest, one to his left anterior chest, one to the center chest, one to the upper posterior back, two to the left axillary, one to the right forearm, and one to the left wrist.
The suit argues this series of events - an alleged failure to properly supervise Fussell or treat his situation with an emergency seriousness - directly resulted in his "encounter with the police that led to his death."
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday its investigation into the police shooting was given to the DA’s Office on for review earlier this month on Sept. 13.
The Riverdale Police Chief added, in a statement:
The GBI has delivered its investigation to the District Attorney’s Office in Clayton County.
Both Officers involved in the incident are still employed.
Nothing further while the incident is being reviewed by the DA’s Office.