Source: The Washington Post / Getty
On Jan. 13, 2023, a 10-year-old Black girl woke up in a field in Pontiac, Michigan, to find her mother and two younger brothers had frozen to death. Now, a federal lawsuit accuses Oakland County and three deputies with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office of neglecting their duties to prevent this tragedy.
According to the Kansas City Star, 35-year-old Monica Cannady, and two of her three children, 9-year-old Kyle Milton and 3-year-old Malik Milton, died from hypothermia, the lawsuit filed earlier this month states. The suit also alleges that a good Samaritan contacted the sheriff’s office numerous times in an effort to get help for Cannady and her children, who were reportedly out in the cold without coats on. However, according to the OCSO, deputies did everything they had the power to do to help the family, but the mother, who reportedly suffered from mental illness, refused their help.
From the Star:
On Jan. 13, 2023, Cannady left home with her three children in freezing temperatures. The four had no coats, hats or gloves on but instead were “draped in bedsheets,” the lawsuit said.
Around 1 p.m., a woman called police saying Cannady was knocking on doors asking for help and tried to break into a neighbor’s house, the civil complaint said.
Surveillance video showed Cannady enter a hospital at 1:09 p.m. A deputy arrived at the hospital and spoke to her briefly, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint said it was clear to the deputy that Cannady was having “psychiatric issues.” At times she “stared blankly” in response to questions, and when asked if she and the kids were OK, she said “I don’t know that,” the lawsuit said. She also suggested her kids called 911, despite them not having a phone, the complaint said.
The deputy watched as she and the children left and began walking toward downtown. When he asked from his window where they were going, she walked faster, the lawsuit said. Then he confronted her a third time, but she “continued to demonstrate fear and anxiety interacting with him,” the lawsuit said.
Cannady told the deputy she was going to a relative’s home, but instead of making sure she and her children made it there, he left the area as she continued to walk away, according to the complaint.
Cannady and her children continued to wander the streets until about 3:30 p.m. when she arrived at her mother’s home in “a state of panic,” banging on the door saying the police were trying to kill her and they were “bugging” her phone, the lawsuit said.
Several people begged Cannady to leave the children at the home, but around 4:30 p.m. she left with her three kids, the complaint said.
The suit claims that between Cannady’s family and the concerned citizen, numerous calls were made to the sheriff’s office. Then, at 4:57 p.m., a deputy arrived and allegedly told the non-related caller, “You understand that there is nothing we can do about that right?” to which the man responded, “There’s got to be somebody who can do something about it.”
The suit also details police bodycam footage that revealed discussions between deputies that indicated their apathy towards the family’s plight and their contempt for being ordered by superior officers to help.
More from the Star:
During a 16-minute conversation with an unknown person, the deputy complained about being ordered to perform a welfare check on Cannady and her children, the complaint said.
The deputy said he wanted to do “real police work,” the lawsuit said. He went on to say it was a “dumb (expletive) welfare check” and the good Samaritan who called was a “ghetto politician,” according to the complaint.
The deputy said the family was just “homeless being homeless” and there was no point in looking for them to put the kids in “(expletive) foster care and get raped,” according to the complaint.
“The kids will still be there and they will be just fine. … People in Pontiac just don’t die. … It’s a CYA (cover your [expletive]) because a dumb (expletive) ghetto politician can’t just leave well enough alone just because it is kind of cold out. … I don’t particularly care,” he was heard saying during the conversation.
On top of that, the Detroit Free Press obtained the bodycam footage that captured a deputy exclaiming that he doesn’t want to “come to work anymore” and that the “local politician” is upset that he didn’t “go check on the dumb (expletive) kids.” The complaint claims that the deputy ignored orders to look for Monica Cannady and her kids and left the area instead.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Stephen W. Huber confirmed the authenticity of the bodycam recordings and said the officer who made the remarks is no longer with the sheriff’s office.
“After reviewing bodycam footage of OCSO personnel during that timeline, numerous statements were made by one former OCSO deputy sheriff that were not in keeping with OCSO standards of conduct for its deputies. An internal affairs investigation was initiated and the deputy resigned before a disciplinary review could be completed,” Huber said.
However, Huber has also “vehemently” defended the sheriff’s office and denied any other wrongdoing.
“OCSO vehemently denies that any actions of OCSO personnel caused the tragic deaths of Ms. Cannady and her two young sons,” he said.
“Numerous efforts were made by OCSO personnel to help Ms. Cannady and her children. However, she refused all such efforts made by OCSO deputies to help. Importantly, at no time did any OCSO deputy have a legal basis to detain the family,” Huber claimed.
It’s worth mentioning that, according to the suit, it wasn’t just a single deputy who didn’t seem to care about finding or aiding this family even after the good Samaritan told deputies, “Three children were screaming,” and that “they are in trouble.”
The complaint says the deputies did look around the area, but while doing so, one of them laughed while telling another deputy that he “flashed my lights so it seems like we” performed a thorough search of the mother and children.
The suit says deputies gave up the search at around 8:05 p.m. At around 3:15 p.m. the next day, the only surviving child, Monica Cannady’s daughter, arrived at a home across the street from the field where her mother and brothers had died and pointed out where their bodies were.
The family’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
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