Bridgeport in Connecticut
Outrage over investigation into the deaths of two black women – police officers suspended
How did Lauren Smith Fields die? The case is making waves across the US on television and social media.
© Screenshot Twitter
The deaths of two black women in the north of the United States become a national scandal. The police are accused of sloppiness – two police officers had to go.
It was December 12, 2021 when 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields was found dead at her home. The young woman from Bridgeport, Connecticut, had met an internet acquaintance the night before and was not breathing in the morning. The police quickly came to the conclusion that it was a tragic accident, an overdose of drugs and alcohol.
The family of the 23-year-old is convinced that the investigators came to their conclusion prematurely and without serious investigations. Since those days last December, she has never tired of protesting against the investigations and has now achieved her first success: the two investigators who were responsible for the case have been suspended from duty. The case should now be thoroughly investigated again.
The death of the 23-year-old receives additional attention, as another woman died on the same day in an apparently partly similar situation. 53-year-old Brenda Lee Rawls died under circumstances that are still unclear, apparently also after meeting an internet acquaintance.
Protests in Bridgeport against police investigation
The anger, especially among the black population, is high in Bridgeport. The city is located near New York across from Long Island and is the largest in the state of Connecticut with a population of over 150,000. The case is now making headlines far beyond the city limits and is a topic in the national media.
The main accusation against the police is that they do not look nearly as closely into the deaths of black or indigenous women as they do in comparable cases with white victims. In addition, the way the investigators dealt with the affected families caused outrage: According to several media reports, they were not informed, or only very late, about the death of their relatives.
In the case of 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields, the relatives are said to have found out from the landlord and a succinct note on the apartment – one day after the body was found. The note on the apartment said there was a police number under which the callers were said to have been informed that the 23-year-old was dead. Smith-Field’s family also said they were turned away by police when they tried to find out more.
Any pieces of evidence simply left lying around
Relatives of 53-year-old Brenda Lee Rawls report similar experiences with the investigators. In addition, the possible crime scenes are said to have been investigated only sloppily. At Smith-Fields, a suspicious bloody bed sheet is said to have been secured as possible evidence only two weeks after the bodies were found. At Brenda Lee Rawls, the police left clothing and shoes unnoticed and did not examine them.
The two cases caused such a stir that Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim felt compelled this week to publicly reprimand the responsible police officers in a video statement and also to announce internal investigations against them. They did not follow the procedures of the police when investigating deaths and were also very insensitive to the cases.
The Smith-Fields family has threatened to sue the city and metropolitan police. There were anti-police demonstrations in the city where parents said they were treated like dirt by the police. She argues that if a white woman were found dead in her apartment under mysterious circumstances after meeting an online acquaintance, the case should not be closed so quickly. The case of Gabby Petito, who was allegedly killed by her fiancé last year, is used as a comparison again and again. This case caused a stir, and her boyfriend has now admitted to killing the woman. Petito was white.
Whether Smith-Field’s death was an overdose or a felony is something the new investigation will have to determine. However, there are supposed to be inconsistencies when it comes to the cause of death – at least that is what several media reports on the case say. The Internet acquaintance, a 37-year-old man, is said to have dialed the emergency call on the morning of December 12 because she was lying next to him in the morning after a night together and was no longer breathing. He met her three days before she died, and the night before she was found, the two had been drinking alcohol together. When help arrived in the morning, according to the rescue workers, the woman should have been dead for at least an hour.
Possible suspect “a nice guy”
The family complains that he was not treated as a suspect in the first place. Apparently, that’s what the reports say, because he “seems to be a really nice guy.”
In the case of Brenda Lee Rawls, it was also the family who urged a closer investigation into the cause of death. Her sister was quoted in Newsweek as saying, “Nobody informed us and we had to do our own investigations.” The family of the 53-year-olds also feels that the police have turned them away. The investigators would have treated the death of the woman without any respect.
Sources: ABC, “USAToday“, “New York Post“, “The Cut“, “Newsweek“
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