A man found lifeless and covered in insect bites in a run-down Georgia jail cell died as a result of “serious neglect” by staff at the facility, his family’s attorneys said Monday after they commissioned an independent autopsy . Lashawn Thompson, 35, was arrested in Atlanta in June 2022 on charges of negligent assault. In September, Thompson was found in his cell in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail, malnourished, dehydrated and his body “infested with insects inside and out,” attorneys Ben Crump and Michael Harper said. “This is the most unfortunate death in custody in American history,” Crump said at a news conference Monday. From the autopsy, which was funded by civil rights activist and NFL star Colin Kaepernick, Crump said that Thompson had had “countless” bug bites and that he had received no treatment for his schizophrenia leading up to his death. The autopsy determined Thompson’s death to be a homicide, although the medical term does not legally infer death. Brad McCray, Thompson’s brother, said it was “disturbing” to see pictures online of the condition of Thompson’s prison cell. “I have another brother and when he saw these pictures and lived through them as a family, he had a nervous breakdown,” McCray said.
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