Fairfax County Sheriff's Office Releases Video of Natasha McKenna Jail Cell Extraction

PHOTO: Natasha McKenna; team suited up in biohazard suits Feb. 3 before attempting to extract McKenna from jail cell in Fairfax County, screen grab from video released Thursday by Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office

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The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has released a video today of Alexandria resident Natasha McKenna being extracted from a jail cell on Feb. 3 in Fairfax County. The mentally ill woman was being held for more than a week in Fairfax County on an arrest warrant from the City of Alexandria.

No Charges in Natasha McKenna’s Death: ‘A Tragic Accident,’ Says Commonwealth’s Attorney

When Fairfax officials tried to extract her from her cell, they had such difficulty they say that they used a Taser several times. She later died.

Harvey J. Volzer, an attorney for McKenna’s family, said he asked the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to look at the case, according to a report by The Washington Post. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia are also involved.

A Fairfax County deputy sheriff was assigned to record the extraction. The 48-minute video shows deputies putting suits on and explaining the extraction, followed by the efforts to restrain McKenna in the jail hallway and the efforts to treat her once it was determined she was in a medical emergency. Police had refused to release the video while McKenna’s death was under investigation.

Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid released this announcement after releasing the video Thursday:

“From the outset of this terrible tragedy, I promised to cooperate fully with the investigators and to be transparent about the incident involving Natasha McKenna. Now that Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh has found that no employee of the Sheriff’s Office has committed a crime, I am fulfilling my promise to release the complete video and all of the incident reports related to Ms. McKenna’s incarceration. The only editing to the video is the pixilation done to protect Ms. McKenna’s privacy as much as possible.”

Stacey A. Kincaid, Sheriff

In the video, the Sheriff expresses her condolences to the family and that there is an ongoing internal affairs investigation into jail procedures. She said that the jail is undergoing procedures to help prisoners who are mentally ill.

Patch is not publishing the video here but is providing a link to the video and reports on the case:

• Sheriff’s Office Video
• Sheriff’s Office Incident Reports
• Commonwealth’s Attorney Report