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Jul 28, 2023

Family: teen that died in Memphis police custody needed mental health help

The family of Courtney Ross, the 19-year-old who died in the custody of the Memphis Police Department in early August, wants all footage from his death released and wants to know why officers from the

The family of Courtney Ross, the 19-year-old who died in the custody of the Memphis Police Department in early August, wants all footage from his death released and wants to know why officers from the department's Crisis Intervention Team were not called.

The family, accompanied by their lawyer, noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump, spoke Friday morning alongside the family of Jarveon Hudspeth, who was shot and killed by a Shelby County Sheriff's deputy and is another family Crump is representing.

"Y'all should've been able to talk to my son," said Courtney Allen, Ross' father. "You shouldn't have had to run him down, and now he's dead in your custody. He did not die in the hospital. My son died in your custody. We just want to know what happened. We just want to know the truth."

Allen said that Ross struggled with mental illness and that the police in the area knew Ross since he lived a block away from where the large police scene was located, near the intersection of Madison Avenue and Auburndale Street.

"CIT was supposed to be called instead of aggressive police," Allen said. "He was supposed to get medical help with the CIT."

Police were initially called by a resident in the Midtown area around 10:55 a.m. on Aug. 11 who said a man on his property was "reportedly rummaging through boxes, retrieving poisonous bait used for rodents," a MPD statement posted to Twitter at the time said. The statement also said there was another call to police about a man allegedly looking inside vehicles and mailboxes in the same area.

When police approached the man, who was later identified as Ross, police say he ran from them.

"Officers were able to apprehend the male in the area of Madison and Auburndale, at which time he began to resist being handcuffed," the MPD statement said. "The male was taken into custody and placed in the rear of a squad car. Officers observed that the male appeared to be out of breath and exhausted from running. An ambulance was called to the scene to check the well-being of the male."

Ross was then taken to Methodist University Hospital in critical condition and died around 1:20 p.m.

Ross' mother, Scarlett Pickens, spoke briefly before breaking down into tears on the stage at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church Friday morning.

"He was funny," Pickens said, remembering her son. "If you were having a bad day, Courtney was the kid that just made you laugh. He was silly, he loved to eat, he loved to have fun. He loved sports. He liked being with his family. He was smart, intelligent. He made honor roll... He was my baby."

Allen remembered his son as a "hard worker" with "a lot of talents." Allen does lawn service work in Midtown and said Ross would join him for that work.

"My son has contributed to this community," Allen said. "Everyone in their community knows me and my son. We have done a lot of good in Memphis."

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.