By Melanie Eversley

Nationally prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump has signed on to represent the family of a Black South Carolina man who died in a Charleston County jail after deputies used force to remove him from his cell.

Crump is calling for charges to be brought against law enforcement in the Jan. 5 death of Jamal Sutherland, 31, who suffered from mental challenges,  the Columbia State is reporting. 

Police “unjustly killed this man who was having a mental health crisis,” Crump said during a Tuesday press conference in Charleston. “This was a child who needed a helping hand but yet he got Tasers and pepper spray and knees in his back and a spit mask when he couldn’t breathe.”

Police were removing Sutherland from the cell to attend a hearing where his presence was not mandatory, according to the State