Inset: Abdul Kamara (Abdul Kamara’s family/KPBS/YouTube). Background: The outside of a San Diego County jail facility (KPBS/YouTube).
A lawsuit brought by the family of a man who died after being taken to jail instead of receiving necessary medical treatment has cleared a hurdle in federal court. The legal action claims law enforcement in California failed to heed medical advice, resulting in the tragic death of 29-year-old Abdul Kamara, whose blood pressure had reached perilously high levels.
According to the lawsuit, Kamara died on March 3, 2024, in the sallyport of the Vista Detention Facility. His family contends that officers ignored a doctor’s directive to return him to Scripps Memorial Hospital after he had fled from an emergency room. Details of the case were outlined in the family’s legal complaint.
“Abdul should have never been at the Vista Detention Facility,” the complaint argues, emphasizing that just hours earlier, Carlsbad police and paramedics had transported him to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas due to concerns about his health and mental state.
The situation escalated when Kamara “eloped” from the emergency room. Concerned hospital staff contacted the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for help in locating him, citing worries over his “safety and condition,” as stated in the complaint. At the time of his escape, Kamara’s blood pressure had reportedly soared to 181/116.
Hospital personnel allegedly instructed the police to bring Kamara back for a medical hold and further evaluation. The complaint claims medical staff described Kamara as paranoid, delusional, and incapable of ensuring his own safety, urging law enforcement to prioritize his return to the hospital.
Authorities had no information that Kamara had “committed any crime, had no information that Abdul had any outstanding warrants, and had no information that Abdul had harmed any person,” according to his family’s legal team.
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.”
