OKC Family Still Looking For Answers After In-Custody Death

An in-custody death of an Oklahoma City man has now sparked a wrongful death lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the family of Lorez Chambers announced their petition Friday, July 29.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel followed up that presser with one of his own calling the claims against the jail and Board of Commissioners, “false,” and a “baseless,” attack against law enforcement.

According to court documents filed by chambers attorney, law enforcement officers slammed Chambers’ face and pinned his head to the ground. The document also mentions, it took up to 15 officers to arrest and subdue him.

All these accusations moved Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel to break his silence.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, he said, “I probably shouldn’t be meeting with media since litigation has been filed. I am tired of the baseless and untrue comments the Oklahoma County Jail and the dedicated public servants who work here.”

Lorez Chambers had a long rap sheet but his family says he didn’t deserve to die in custody.

“Somebody can get picked up for trespassing and then end up dead, oooh that ain’t right,” said Chambers’ Mother in Law, Deborah Briggs.

And now Chambers’ family is asking for at least $75,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Oklahoma County Jail and Board of Commissioners

Whetsel said EMSA took Chambers to the hospital from the jail after he was thrashing and bit his tongue.

The Sheriff added at no point was Chambers booked into the Oklahoma County Jail.

“At no time was Mr. Chambers struck punched, nor was his head struck against anything by any member of the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office or by any member of the OCPD while he was on jail property,” said Whetsel.

Whetsel said he saw the surveillance video, evidence the Chambers family doesn’t have.

According to the Chambers family, Lorez died from four skull fractures.

Attorneys for the family the Medical Examiner’s Office is citing his cause of death as, blunt force trauma.

Chambers’ attorneys are seeking at least $75,000 in damages.