BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Attorneys for the Brevard County sheriff and the Florida Today newspaper have reached a tentative agreement for the release of video from inside the Brevard Jail on the day a U.S. combat veteran died while in custody.
Gregory Edwards died Dec. 10, 2018, while at the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes. He was arrested a day earlier by West Melbourne police outside a retail store for allegedly assaulting a charity worker. His wife told arresting officers her husband was a combat veteran suffering from a PTSD episode.
Edwards then resisted being booked into the jail, leading to an altercation with at least seven deputies. Edwards was punched, kneed, hit with a Taser, pepper-sprayed and then strapped in a restraint chair with a spit hood over his head and pepper spray still on his face. Paramedics were called after deputies later found him unresponsive in his cell. He died the next day at a local hospital.
Sheriff Wayne Ivey denied Florida Today’s public records request for the jail video of the incident, citing security exemptions to the state’s public records law, saying the safety of deputies and the jail was at stake if the video were to be made public. In July, the newspaper sued the Sheriff’s Office for the video’s release.
[READ: Medical examiner doubts veteran’s death in Brevard jail was an accident | Brevard inmate dies after apparent medical episode during booking]
Days before a scheduled civil trial between the two parties, Circuit Judge David Dugan continued the case while pushing both sides toward resolving the matter, reports News 6 partner Florida Today.
On Friday, the newspaper and the sheriff’s office attorneys reached a tentative agreement for the release of the video.
Both sides have until next Friday to submit their settlement agreement about what video is going to be made public.
Outside the hearing Friday, people carried signs and posters calling for the Sheriff’s Office to release the video.
Check back for updates on this developing story.