Tarrant County commissioner supports calls for sheriff’s resignation following jail death

Read the latest in our coverage of the death of Anthony Johnson Jr. and other issues in Tarrant County jail.

Tarrant County Commissioner Alissa Simmons expressed her support for a call for Sheriff Bill Waybourn’s resignation while speaking with the Star-Telegram after a press conference held by jail reform advocates Friday morning.

“It’s clear that we need more caring and responsible leadership in the sheriff’s office,” she said. “I don’t think we have that now.”

The press conference was held in response to the release of video footage of the in-custody death of Anthony Johnson Jr., 31, who died April 21 after an altercation with jailers in the Tarrant County jail.

The footage shows that former jailer Rafael Moreno placed his knee and body weight on Johnson’s back for around 90 seconds after Johnson had already been subdued and put in handcuffs. No officers in the video appear to respond when Johnson is heard saying he cannot breathe.

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“They were able to say a word, able to stop it, but choosing instead to stay silent in the face of this killing,” said the Rev. Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Church and organizer with the advocacy group Unity in the Community. “They did nothing to save his life. This is the culture at work in the Tarrant County Jail. The culture of depraved indifference, and it starts at the top with Sheriff Waybourn.”

A sheriff’s office spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Simmons, who represents Precinct 2 in southeast Tarrant County, called the footage “heart wrenching” and echoed advocates’ demands to release the full video of Johnson’s death. The video shown for reporters Thursday stopped when Moreno stands up and Johnson is seen lying still on the floor. Waybourn said said during the press conference the office does not share video of “non-responsive” people.

Pamela Young, executive director of United Fort Worth, called the video a “chopped and screwed version of the video” meant to “appease and silence the community who’s calling out.”

“We want it all, we want all the footage, and we want everyone who was complicit in this killing to be held accountable, including the sheriff,” Young said.

When asked by a reporter for his reaction to the video, Dominique Alexander, president of the Next Generation Action Network who spoke alongside Bell and Young, said he did not watch it, citing his fatigue from similar jail deaths and police use of force actions in the past.

“To be quite honest with you, I didn’t watch the video, I didn’t want to,” he said, adding that he based his call for Waybourn’s resignation on what he was told about Johnson’s death from others and comments from the attorney representing Johnson’s family. “I don’t need to watch the video. I’ve been watching 12, 15 years worth of video.”

Speaking with the Star-Telegram after the press conference, Josh Lucas of the Justice Network of Tarrant County referred to comments by County Medical Examiner Kendall Crowns, who told county commissioners that “if we can save one person, that’s a success to me” during a speech on the dangers of fentanyl earlier this month.

“Why don’t we look at this same statistic with the same deontological lens: if we can save one life?” he said. “Instead, we’re doing nothing. We’re allowing this culture to continue and we’re turning the blind eye.”

Bell, of Unity in the Community, told the Star-Telegram after the press conference that there is a “toxic culture” in the Tarrant County jail, referring to the part of the video that shows jailers not responding after Johnson said he could not breathe.

“We’ve heard of other persons across this country, violence has been perpetrated on them and they said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and we’ve seen them die,” he said. “And so you mean to tell me that as a jailer that you’re so out of touch with just kind of common care and common sense that you just allow this to go on? Something’s wrong.”