GREENE COUNTY, Ark. — Sheriff Brad Snyder fired nine jail employees Wednesday after reviewing video and documentation surrounding the death of 18-year-old Atiyanna Willis, saying staff failed to meet his standards for caring for people in custody.
In a separate interview with NEA Report, Snyder said employees failed to assist Willis, who died Sept. 22 after a medical emergency at the Greene County Detention Center.
“What I have found angers me greatly,” Snyder said in a public video statement Wednesday. “Every person in our custody deserves to be checked on, cared for, and treated with dignity. That’s the standard I set in this jail.”
Snyder said he personally reviewed video and documentation following Willis’ death.
“Based on my preliminary review, some of my employees did not meet that standard,” he said. “I won’t make excuses for that, and I won’t tolerate it either. Today I fired nine jail employees.”
He also ordered immediate retraining for every jail employee.
Arkansas State Police are conducting an independent investigation at Snyder’s request. During his interview with NEA Report on Wednesday night, Snyder said he had not received autopsy results.
Asked what prompted the firings, Snyder said employees have an obligation to check on people in custody and ensure they receive help during medical emergencies. He said the detention center has medical care available around the clock, but staff failed to assist Willis.
Snyder did not describe the individual actions that led to the terminations. The information released so far does not establish Willis’ medical cause of death or whether employees’ actions contributed to it.
Snyder declined NEA Report’s request to identify the nine employees or their positions, citing the ongoing investigations. He said he could potentially release additional information as early as Thursday after receiving updates from investigators.
His criminal investigation division is conducting an internal review focused on jail policies and procedures, Snyder said. State Police are handling the outside investigation.
None of the nine fired employees were medical personnel, according to Snyder. He identified the jail’s medical provider as Turn Key, whose employees work separately from the sheriff’s office.
Asked whether the nurse remained employed there, Snyder said he had not been notified of a change. To his knowledge, he said, there was no issue involving Turn Key in this situation.
SHERIFF: Well, without going into great detail, you know, I kind of said it in my in my statement, my video about, you know, we, we have an obligation to check on these people that are incarcerated and to take care of them and ensure that if they are experiencing some kind of medical emergency that we, we provide that, that assistance. That’s why we have 24 seven medical care at the detention center. And so, you know, we pay, we pay money for that to have them on site to be able to take care of those issues. And when we fail to do that, we fail that person. And so that’s without going into great explicit detail at this point, that’s kind of, that’s kind of the long and short of it is we fail to, we fail to assist somebody.
REPORTER: And that’s, that’s an extraordinary statement. You realize legally from a ramification perspective that, that kind of is basically stating that, that the sheriff’s department was responsible for the death of an inmate.
SHERIFF: Understandable. Yes.
REPORTER: Well, respect for saying that. I mean, I appreciate that.
SHERIFF: Well, you know, when this, when this occurred, and as you know, like I said, we, we conduct anything like this, we’re going to refer to the Office of State Police. So that’s just normal protocol for them to determine any criminal, you know, what caused her death directly was a, was a health incident. I don’t know what the diagnosis is going to be or the result from the crime lab is going to be. But it was, it was obviously something medical. However, you know, there was, there was, there were failures on our part that are unacceptable.
Snyder said the sheriff’s office is cooperating with State Police and promptly providing requested information.
In his public video statement, Snyder expressed condolences to Willis’ family.
“I am truly heartbroken for her family,” he said.
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