Thread by @InsideEdition

THREAD: In an exclusive interview with @OfficerStephNY, Shereese Francis’ family spoke on her 2012 death, which some have compared to George Floyd’s.
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1/ On March 15, 2012, Shauna Francis called 311 for help with getting her little sister, Shereese, to take her schizophrenia medication.
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2/ “Never in our wildest dreams had we thought that calling for help would have led to her death. It's like I couldn't fathom it. I was in disbelief. You know?”
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3/ Calling authorities for help was something Shereese’s family did from time to time when she refused to take her medicine.
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4/ “So when they came, to my surprise, it wasn't the paramedics who came before. It was the police officers. Four officers came, and they asked me where she was, and I said, ‘Well, she's downstairs.’ So we went downstairs.”
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5/ “So she saw them and she was just, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’” Both Shauna and Shereese's best friend Sunshine Williams-Smith said Shereese had never been arrested or had any involvement whatsoever with law enforcement. 
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6/ Shauna says Shereese was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college. She feels like it should’ve been clear to officers that they were handling what the NYPD calls an Emotionally Disturbed Person by the way she responded to their commands.
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7/ “I guess they're telling her, ‘You have to go to the hospital. You have to go to the hospital.’ She said, ‘I'm not going anywhere. You get out of my house right now. Get out of my house right now. Out!’…”
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8/ “…So she started walking to go up the stairs. By the stairs, there is a bed. She went towards the staircase, and I heard one of the officers say, ‘Don't let her go! Don't let her pass! Don't let her go up the stairs!’”
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9/ “That's when everything turned worse. They tackled her onto the bed. She ended up face down on the bed, and the police officer was on top of her, in her back…”
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10/ “…I trusted these police officers. I thought they knew what they were doing, so I just kept saying, ‘Shereese, please cooperate. They're just trying to help you to get back to the hospital.’”
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11/ As her sister kept screaming, “Get off of me!” Shauna remembers pacing back and forth because it was so difficult to watch.
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12/ “Then, all of a sudden, it went silent. There was complete silence in the room. So then I looked, and I said, 'Wait. What's going on?' She was laying there, just lifeless.”
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For @OfficerStephNY’s full story, featuring the only in-depth interview Shereese Francis’ family has granted since her 2012 death:
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Black (and Native) Americans are both disproportionately killed by the police and more likely to be disabled than white Americans. Around 11 million disabled Black Americans and their families live with a daily fear of encountering police violence.
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