TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Activists angered by the Tarrant County sheriff’s management of the county jail are calling for his resignation.
United My Justice held a press conference Tuesday evening to demand Sheriff Bill Waybourn step down. A handful of Fort Worth residents made the same request at commissioners court earlier in the day, the panel’s first meeting since TCSO published video of inmate Anthony Johnson’s death in the jail.
The video showed a now-fired jailer kneeling on Johnson’s back for about 90 seconds. Johnson, an ex-marine, said he could not breathe before he went unconscious.
The medical examiner has not yet decided what caused Johnson’s death, but Waybourn said, in that scenario, the jailer should not have gotten on top of the inmate.
He also fired a supervisor for allowing the jailer to kneel on Johnson’s back.
More than 60 people have died at the Tarrant County jail since Waybourn took office in 2017. About half of those inmates died from natural causes, the sheriff’s office said.
Inmate deaths in Tarrant County have exceeded the national average in each of the last four years, according to National Institutes of Health data.
In the last year, Tarrant County has spent more than $2 million to settle lawsuits related to the jail. Commissioners approved a record-breaking settlement Tuesday.
“This is a state of emergency,” said Donnell Ballard, who founded United My Justice. “Enough is enough. We’re sick and tired of seeing people die in this community.”
Ballard said his group is planning a silent march to memorialize the people who’ve died in the jail. He and other activists have promised to keep the jail at discussion’s forefront through Election Day.
Waybourn, who could not interview with WFAA Tuesday, is running for re-election in November. He was unopposed in the Republican primary. Waybourn was re-elected by more than 40,000 votes in 2020 when President Joe Biden carried Tarrant County.
Tuesday, Waybourn told commissioners there is always room for improvement at the jail and he supports more training for officers. He touted the department’s approach to de-escalation.
“Our teams are doing a good job,” he said.
He also noted that there have been more deaths at the slightly smaller Bexar County jail than in Tarrant County since 2017.
County Judge Tim O’Hare told the crowd Tuesday that Waybourn has more integrity than any elected official he’s worked with.