Indiana family demands bodycam video after police operation

DEMOTTE, Ind. – The family of a 26-year-old Indiana father wants transparency after a call for help ended in his death.

Rhyker Earl had two seizures on September 8, 2024. After the second one, his grandmother called for help.

“I called 911 because I thought they would help him,” Connie Widner said.

The family and their attorneys held a press conference on Sept. 23 in DeMotte, Indiana, where Earl lived, calling on the Jasper County Sheriff to release bodycam video from the night they were called for help.

Both the family and the police agree on many details of what happened, including that Earl stopped breathing while he was handcuffed on the ground.

Earl's aunt, Miracle Glawinski, was on the scene. She remembers telling emergency responders, “He's blue. Check his pulse, he's blue. Please do something.”

The first responders could no longer find a pulse. After another two days in the intensive care unit, his death was confirmed.

“Rhyker was knocked unconscious,” said Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family. “He never regained consciousness.”

Indiana State Police are investigating Earl's death and are asking the public for patience as they work.

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Jasper County Sheriff Pat Williamson said in a statement that Earl offered “significant physical resistance to medical personnel on scene.”

The family said it was a normal reaction for someone waking up from an epileptic seizure and finding a crowd of people in their home.

“A person having a seizure,” Widner said, “makes you nervous. You don't know what's going on. Rhyker has had several seizures and has never been violent. He's confused when he wakes up from a seizure. But in all the time we've called ambulances, he's never been violent or anything like that toward anyone.”

The family said Rhyker had seizures about once a month for 7 years. They say Rhyker had a seizure earlier that same day and the same paramedics arrived.

“We accompanied him through several seizures,” said Chuck Widner, Earl's grandfather. “He was never, ever, violent toward anyone.”

According to the sheriff's statement, “several family members pleaded with Earl to remain calm and tried to reassure him that officers and medical personnel were there to help him.”

But Earl's family said they begged police to help him.

“I told him, 'Pa's here,'” Chuck Widner said. Then he said he alerted the paramedics. “He has bad asthma. He can't breathe.”

“He's begging for his life, saying, 'Grandma, Grandma, please let her off me,'” Connie Widner said.

The Jasper County Sheriff's statement said, “In accordance with his training, officers restrained him in a manner that did not impede his breathing, and Mr. Earl spoke loudly throughout the incident.”

“He says he has the video and reviewed it and that Rhyker verbalized,” said Steve Wagner, another attorney for the family. “But he didn't say what Rhyker verbalized. We know what Rhyker verbalized. He said he couldn't breathe.”

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Earl is not the first person to have run into trouble with police after a seizure. The Epilepsy Foundation has set up the Jeanne A Carpenter Epilepsy Legal Defense Fund to help people with epilepsy with legal issues, many of which relate to what happened after a seizure.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Not everyone who has an epileptic seizure goes through the (postictal) state, but many people do.”

According to the Epilepsy Foundation:

“During this time, a person is easily frightened, upset, unable to communicate effectively and may become argumentative or aggressive, especially when approached, as they may perceive this as a threat.

A basic rule in managing a seizure is that the person should not be restrained in any way unless it is essential for their personal safety or the safety of others. Restraints during or shortly after a seizure may worsen or induce combativeness – the opposite of the intended result. The greater the resistance to restraint, the greater the threat to one's life. Restraints face down and/or with arms tied behind their back are particularly dangerous.”

In April 2024, a California man sued the Central Marin Police Authority after he was shocked by a police officer during a seizure in his home. His attorney uploaded bodycam video of the incident to his website.

The Epilepsy Foundation also states that “people suffering from epilepsy or a range of other disabilities are often wrongfully arrested and detained because police officers have not received adequate training in recognizing and responding to epileptic seizures.”