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

Michael Broady Jr. ha chiamato il 911 nell'agosto 2021 da Reform, Alabama, e ha detto a un dispaccino che qualcuno stava cercando di ucciderlo. Gli agenti del dipartimento di polizia di riforma, l'ufficio dello sceriffo della contea di Pickens, e il dipartimento di polizia di carollton ha risposto. L'hanno tenuto su mandati eccezionali, tra cui un supporto per bambini della contea di Lamar. Fu dichiarato morto all'eliporto dell'ospedale Carrollton. Cinque anni dopo la causa federale non è più un blocco di imputati. Due agenti si sono sistemati. Due deputati non hanno, e la data di mediazione che doveva testare che la divisione è già passata senza un licenziamento pubblico.

Stati Uniti Il giudice distrettuale Annemarie Carney Axon ha firmato un ordine il 28 maggio 2026, respingendo con pregiudizio le pretese contro l'ufficiale riformatore Kallenna Homan e Austin Moss dopo la tenuta si stabilirono con loro. I termini non sono stati rilasciati. AL.com, citando un rapporto di stato congiunto di fine maggio, ha identificato Moss come agente di polizia di Gordo. La scrittura successiva della WBRC lo descrisse come vice sceriffo della contea di Pickens. Entrambe le descrizioni non possono essere l'agenzia per quella notte. Ciò che l'ordine stabilisce è che quei due imputati sono fuori. Claims contro i deputati della contea di Pickens Brian Herd e Taylor Gregory rimasero sulla banchina. Una mediazione prima del giudice magistrato grigio M. Borden è stata impostata per le 9 del mattino il 30 luglio 2026, all'abbraccio l. stati uniti neri tribunale in birmingham. Borden ordinò a entrambe le parti di presentare un riassunto confidenziale dei fatti, il valore stimato dei reclami e lo stato dei colloqui precedenti. Alla fine di settembre 2026, la segnalazione locale non ha pubblicato un ordine di licenziamento Herd o Gregory.

What the cameras recorded before anyone settled

Le registrazioni sono circa 40 minuti da un deputato Pickens e circa 30 da un ufficiale riformatore. Broady parla con gli agenti. Poi viene portato a terra. L'audio cattura i comandi gridati, i cicli ripetuti di Taser e un ufficiale che grida: "Lasciate andare dal mio Taser". Gli avvocati della famiglia dicono che era scioccato mentre era incline e ammanettato. Il filmato lo mostra trascinato e portato a un incrociatore. Mentre la porta si chiude, un altro ciclo di Taser sembra sparare all'interno della macchina. AL.com pubblicò una clip condensata nel dicembre 2025. I fascicoli più lunghi provengono dagli avvocati della famiglia.

Dopo che gli ufficiali avevano Broady sul sedile posteriore, Homan viene sentito sul nastro dicendo: "Tutto quello che dovevi fare era consegnare il cellulare. Accidenti, era un lottatore." Body-camera audio cattura anche Broady comporre 911 una seconda volta dal proprio telefono mentre ammanettato, dicendo che la polizia dispacciatore non era arrivato anche come Gli agenti si fermarono a pochi metri di distanza. Sua sorella, Dequita Denise Broady, il rappresentante personale della tenuta, che è stato anche identificato in interviste come Dequita Manuel, ha messo la domanda le forze video: "È stato ammanettato. Ci sono voluti cinque di voi per farlo - e nessuno di voi ha pensato di smettere?" AL.com e 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.

Defense lawyers treat the toxicology as the case. The family’s lawyers treat the hyoid fracture, the allegation that a flashlight was used against his neck, and the Taser cycles on a cuffed man as the case. The examiner left the door open to revisit the finding if more facts arrived. The death is still not classified as a homicide on paper. That undetermined box is why both sides can still talk as if the video belongs to them. A settlement with two officers does not rewrite the autopsy. It removes two names from a caption.

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. Early defendants included Deputy Herd, Reform Police Chief Kenny Young, the City of Reform, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, the Town of Carrollton, and the Town of Gordo. Two Carrollton officers were later dropped. Pickens County itself was voluntarily dismissed in February 2024. A corrected Fourth Amended Complaint filed in November 2025 added detail from the newly reviewed video: overlapping Taser cycles while Broady was prone and cuffed, a flashlight used against his neck, a Taser fired into the cruiser, a door slammed on his head, kicks on the ground, and failing oxygen gear at the jail sallyport. Those are allegations. They have not been proven at trial.

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 e 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 Stati Uniti d'America stack. The man on the tape called the same number twice. The second time he was already in cuffs. No settlement edits that audio.