Milwaukie body cam released in transport death of Jean Deschamps
By: The investigation into the death of a 26-year-old man during his transport by Milwaukie police from a hospital remains active and ongoing. But late Friday afternoon, Milwaukie police officials released the body worn camera video from one of the officers.
Jean Descamps was being taken by police from Providence Milwaukie Hospital to Unity, a behavioral health center, on December 13. But once they got to Unity, he was unresponsive and died despite CPR efforts.
Despite the ongoing nature of the investigation, Milwaukie PD said they completed reviewing and redacting the body camera footage and wanted to release the body camera footage of Officer Timothy Cleary because of the “significant public interest in the case” and their “commitment to the highest level of transparency within and beyond our community.”
The officers arrive at Providence Milwaukie
As officers entered the hospital, Descamps was groaning and not responding to questions. He appeared to not be in good health despite hospital staff’s claims there were no medical problems, and he was cleared for release.
“He was pleasant, he was conversant the entire time until right when his discharge arrived,” a staffer said. “He’s not thriving, but there’s no medical reason for him to be here anymore, and it’s all behavioral, yep, 100% behavioral.”
Despite warrants for his arrest, the jail wouldn’t take him in the condition he was in. They weighed whether to take him to a homeless shelter.
“Here’s the deal. You can either go to the homeless shelter, alright? Or you can go outside and be cold. You can’t stay here,” an officer said.
Descamp only groaned.
Eventually, police handcuffed him and got him into a wheelchair to take him to the police cruiser. They decide to take him to the behavioral health center.
But when the officer goes back in to get Descamp’s discharge papers, neither the hospital staff nor police can decide who’s responsible for him. Hospital staff said he came to the hospital voluntarily and that he wouldn’t take a cab they ordered for him.
It is not clear who was talking in this exchange:
“Why is he being released?” an officer asked.
“He walked in here. …”
“We have no place to take him. (crosstalk),” the officer said.
“We had him set up with a shelter, a cab to take him to the shelter, and he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay here all night. So that’s how that happened.”
“It’s not really a medical problem.”
“It’s not a police problem, either. It’s really not,” the officer said.
“It’s a community problem.”
Officers arrive at Unity
Officers headed to Unity Behavioral Health. But shortly after they arrived and talked with him, they realized he was unresponsive. Within seconds, officers pulled Descamps from the cruiser, removed his cuffs and began CPR. But despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead after 11:30 p.m.
A while later, the officers are talking with emergency personnel about what happened.
“The supervisor’s like, ‘Take him back in the hospital,’and they refused him. You’re just going to drop him off at a bus stop and let him freeze tonight? He’s not verbal. He’s not talking. He’s got involuntary drool. And they’re like, ‘No, there’s nothing wrong with him.'”
The officer then explained to EMS responders why they eventually resorted to the behavioral health transport.
“We brought him here,” an officer said.
“You guys did everything right,” the EMS responder said.
The Medical Examiner said the cause of death was likely related to a drug overdose with “contributing natural causes.” The final determination will be made from a pending toxicology report.