Michael Broady Called 911 From Reform, Alabama, and the Body Camera Outlived the Partial Settlement

Michael Broady Jr. llamó al 911 en agosto de 2021 de Reform, Alabama, y le dijo a un despachador que alguien intentaba matarlo. Los oficiales del departamento de policía de reforma, la oficina del sheriff del condado de Pickens, y el departamento de policía de carrollton respondió. They held him on outstanding warrants, including a child-support hold out of Lamar County. Fue declarado muerto en el hospital de Carrollton. Cinco años más tarde la demanda federal ya no es un bloque de acusados. Dos oficiales se han asentado. Dos diputados no tienen, y la fecha de mediación que se suponía que debía probar que la división ya ha pasado sin un despido público.

Estados Unidos El juez de distrito Annemarie Carney Axon firmó una orden el 28 de mayo de 2026, desestimando con prejuicio las reclamaciones contra el oficial de reforma Kallenna Homan y Austin Moss después de la finca Se establecieron con ellos. Los términos no fueron liberados. AL.com, citando un informe de estado conjunto a finales de mayo, identificó a Moss como oficial de policía de Gordo. La redacción posterior de WBRC lo describió como ayudante del sheriff del condado de Pickens. Ambas descripciones no pueden ser la agencia que trabajó para esa noche. Lo que establece la orden es que esos dos acusados están fuera. Reclamaciones contra los diputados del condado Pickens Brian Herd y Taylor Gregory permanecieron en el muelle. El 30 de julio de 2026 se estableció una mediación ante el juez gris m. burlón, en el tribunal de los estados unidos en birmingham. Borden ordenó a ambas partes que presentaran un resumen confidencial de los hechos, el valor estimado de las reclamaciones y el estado de las conversaciones anteriores. A finales de septiembre de 2026, los informes locales no han publicado una orden de desestimación de Herd o Gregory.

What the cameras recorded before anyone settled

The recordings run about 40 minutes from a Pickens deputy and about 30 from a Reform officer. Broady talks with the officers. Then he is taken to the ground. Audio catches shouted commands, repeated Taser cycles, and an officer yelling, «Let go of my Taser.» The family’s lawyers say he was shocked while prone and handcuffed. The footage later shows him dragged and carried to a cruiser. As the door fights shut, another Taser cycle appears to fire inside the car. AL.com published a condensed clip in December 2025. The longer files came from the family’s lawyers.

After officers had Broady in the back seat, Homan is heard on the tape saying, «All you had to do was hand the cell phone over. Gosh, that was a wrestle.» Body-camera audio also captures Broady dialing 911 a second time from his own phone while cuffed, telling the dispatcher police had not arrived even as officers stood a few feet away. His sister, DeQuita Denise Broady, the estate’s personal representative, who has also been identified in interviews as Dequita Manuel, put the question the video forces: «He was handcuffed. It took five of you to do that — and none of you thought to stop?» AL.com y ABC 33/40 documented the tapes. His daughter, identified by AL.com as Makyleigh Hollinger, said, «He did nothing to deserve that. Not at all. It was unprovoked.»

An autopsy that refused to pick a winner

The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences listed both cause and manner of death as undetermined. The examiner found two Taser barbs in the torso, blunt-force abrasions, and an acute fracture of the left hyoid bone with internal hemorrhage and no external neck wound. That pattern, the report said, suggested «a relatively broad compressive force» to the front of the neck. How much it contributed to death was left open. Toxicology showed methamphetamine at 2,800 ng/mL, described as a potentially fatal range, plus amphetamine and THC.

Los abogados de Defensa tratan la toxicología como el caso. Los abogados de la familia tratan la fractura hyoide, la alegación de que una linterna fue usada contra su cuello, y los ciclos de Taser en un hombre esposado como el caso. El examinador dejó la puerta abierta para revisar el hallazgo si llegaban más hechos. La muerte todavía no se clasifica como homicidio en papel. Esa caja indeterminada es por qué ambos lados todavía pueden hablar como si el video les pertenece. Un acuerdo con dos oficiales no reescribirá la autopsia. Elimina dos nombres de una capción.

Who is still answering the complaint

DeQuita Denise Broady filed broady v. herd et al. in 2023 in the Northern District of Alabama, Western Division, Case No. 7:23-cv-01097. Los acusados primitivos incluyeron a su ayudante, al jefe de policía de reforma, a la ciudad de reforma, a la oficina del sheriff del condado de Pickens, a la ciudad de Zillton y a la ciudad de Gordon. Dos oficiales de Carrollton fueron retirados más tarde. El condado de Pickens fue despedido voluntariamente en febrero de 2024. Una cuarta queja enmendada corregida presentada en noviembre de 2025 añadió detalles del vídeo recién revisado: superposición de ciclos de Taser mientras que Broady era propensa y apagada, una linterna usado contra su cuello, un Taser disparado en el crucero, una puerta golpeada en su cabeza, patadas en el suelo, y faltando equipo de oxígeno en el puerto de la cárcel. Esas son acusaciones. No han sido probados en el juicio.

Attorney Johnathan Austin told AL.com in July 2026, «This is just one step closer to getting justice and answers for the family that we represent. Now we know what happened to him and now we’re seeking justice.» He also said, «We know there’s no amount of money that’s going to bring this loved one back but at least we can hold them accountable and hopefully in the future they will change the way they are responding to individuals like Mr. Broady so the next person won’t lose their life.» Montgomery attorney J. Randall McNeill, who represents Herd and Gregory, told AL.com his clients deny wrongdoing and that «mediation does not equate an admission.» WBRC y WVUA 23 reported the partial deal. Settlement amounts were not made public.

What the officers say the tape leaves out

McNeill has argued that Broady gained control of a Taser and used it on officers, and that the methamphetamine level was dangerously high. Counsel for the Reform officer denied the allegations and said the officer did not know of mental-health or substance issues during the call. Austin told ABC 33/40 the opposite frame: «This is not a case about someone threatening officers or the public — it is about a man who called the police for help and, despite officers knowing he was in crisis, was met with extreme force rather than restraint or de-escalation.» Co-counsel Richard Rice has tied the file to other deaths in the same county.

Judge L. Scott Coogler’s March 2024 order cut some supervisor and failure-to-train theories and let excessive-force and bystander claims against the officers who used force proceed. That is why Herd and Gregory still matter after Homan and Moss bought their way off the caption. The Axon dismissal did not touch the remaining counts.

Three Black men dead in one small county

Pickens County has fewer than 20,000 people. Between 2019 and 2021 three Black men died in police encounters there. Wallace Wilder was shot during an April 2019 wellness check. Glenn Foster Jr., a former New Orleans Saints lineman, died in December 2021 after a chase in Reform. An autopsy in Foster’s death found strangulation. Austin and Rice wrote Governor Kay Ivey that the pattern under Sheriff Todd Hall included a complete lack of transparency and that the race of all three men was not a coincidence.

In December 2023, Reform officer Dana Elmore was accused of repeatedly using a Taser on Micah Washington, who was changing a tire near his aunt’s house. That file produced a $20 million federal suit after video surfaced in late 2024. Broady sits in the same stack of Taser-and-restraint cases, not as proof that every officer in the county is the same person, but as proof that a county this small has buried more than one family in a five-year window. The AEGIS Alliance has tracked similar force files in its police accountability coverage, in the case of off-duty officers and a Black bouncer, and in the later verdict that ordered an Atlanta officer to pay $21 million after paralyzing a man.

Broady’s mother, Carolyn, said the assignment was simple: cuff him, put him in the car, take him to jail. «He’d still be alive today.» Hollinger had spoken with him hours earlier. He had promised ice cream. Her young son never met his grandfather. The family line that has stuck is short: they know he is not coming back, and they want justice anyway.

A partial settlement is not a closed file

Two officers are out. Two deputies are not. Mediation on July 30 may have produced a confidential number that has not been filed, or it may have produced nothing a clerk will stamp. Comparable Alabama custody-death matters have settled in the mid-six figures. Plaintiffs think the video supports more. The defense thinks the undetermined autopsy and the toxicology cut the other way. Readers following force cases can start with The AEGIS Alliance U.S. news stack. The man on the tape called the same number twice. The second time he was already in cuffs. No settlement edits that audio.