Tommie McGlothen Jr.

Tommie McGlothen Jr., 44, who had a documented mental health condition, died in the backseat of a Shreveport, Louisiana police vehicle on April 5, 2020, following the third of three encounters with officers that day. Cellphone and body camera video showed officers striking McGlothen, including an elbow blow to his neck, and using a Taser and pepper spray on him before forcing him, limp, into the back of a patrol car; witnesses said he then sat unattended for roughly 40 to 48 minutes before paramedics checked on him. The Caddo Parish coroner ruled the death natural but “possibly preventable” due to the delay in medical attention. Four officers were indicted on negligent homicide and malfeasance charges; all four waived a jury and were acquitted by a judge in June 2022 after the defense's motion for a directed verdict was granted when the prosecution rested its case. No one has ever been convicted in McGlothen's death.

Shreveport, LA · Caddo Parish County

• 2020: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The three encounters with police, the force used during the final one, and McGlothen's death in the patrol car, per cellphone video, body camera footage, and trial testimony.
• Video showed an officer striking McGlothen twice after he spat on her, and another officer following with an elbow strike to his neck; witnesses said officers used a Taser and pepper spray on him as well.
• Multiple witnesses testified McGlothen was left in the back of the patrol car for approximately 40 to 45 minutes before an ambulance arrived, and that arriving EMS personnel did not immediately check on him.
• The Caddo Parish Coroner's Office ruled the death was from natural causes but described it as “possibly preventable,” citing the delay in providing medical attention.
• A Caddo Parish grand jury indicted four officers — Brian Ross, James LeClare, Treona McCarter, and D'Marea Johnson — on charges of negligent homicide and malfeasance in office in September 2020.
• All four officers waived their right to a jury trial; a Caddo Parish District Court judge granted a directed verdict of acquittal for all four in June 2022, after defense attorneys argued the prosecution had not proven its case once the state rested.
• A separate federal wrongful death lawsuit filed by McGlothen's family, alleging officers failed to account for signs of excited delirium syndrome, continued in civil court after the criminal acquittals.

• Whether the combined force used — strikes, a neck elbow blow, Tasing, and pepper spray — caused or substantially contributed to McGlothen's death, as the family's civil suit argued, or whether his death was purely from natural causes unrelated to the encounter, as the coroner's ruling and the officers' defense maintained, was never resolved by the criminal case since it ended in a directed acquittal before a full verdict on the merits.
• Why arriving EMS personnel did not immediately check on McGlothen despite witness accounts of a prolonged delay has not been fully explained in available public reporting.
• The specific legal reasoning behind the judge's directed verdict, beyond finding the prosecution had not met its burden, has not been detailed in a public written opinion reviewed for this summary.

• KSLA — “Trial for 4 officers accused in violent death of Tommie McGlothen Jr. begins June 13”
• KTBS — “SPD officers acquitted in McGlothen death”
• Yahoo News / AP — “Judge to rule on dismissing charges against Shreveport officers indicted for in-custody death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs