[Blackwell:] All right. Fourteen minutes after the hour now. There are new developments this morning in a story that CNN has been following very closely. In Savannah, Georgia, nine deputies have been fired in the death of a college student, at least connected to that man's death. A Chatham County sheriff's spokeswoman says that Matthew Ajibade was found dead in an isolation cell on New Year's Day. His family says he was put in a restraining chair and tased. Now, he had been taken into custody after allegedly hitting his girlfriend at a gas station. His family says he was having a bipolar episode and they allege police knew that. A police report says the girlfriend gave police pills for Matthew's disorder. The district attorney is reviewing the case and will decide whether to file criminal charges.
[Kosik:] Let's bring in retired Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg. Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us.
[Matthew Fogg, Chief Deputy U.s. Marshal:] Good to be here with you.
[Kosik:] So, first, is it right to, you know is it right, do you think to fire the deputies right now, you know, it's been four months since this man died.
[Fogg:] I think so. I mean, what, 180 days or more, at least four months. I mean, the bottom line, that's enough time to do a thorough investigation to determine what role these deputies played in the man's death and, again, we've been looking at possible I would say they're looking at if there can be criminal charges out of this. But, definitely, that's enough time for to come to a conclusion that deputies violated some policies or procedures.
[Kosik:] OK. So, we know there's been an internal police investigation. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the case. Now, the district attorney is reviewing the case. You've got these multiple investigations going on. You mentioned criminal charges could be next. Do you think that that could actually happen? What is the D.A. really looking for to bring the case to a grand jury?
[Fogg:] Well, the biggest thing is I think they want to know that they've got enough evidence that it's not just a witch hunt. But bottom line is they've got some solid evidence here that can they can present to a judge and actually to a grand jury and actually have a solid case. So that's what the D.A. is looking at. So, again, when you're talking about somebody dying in custody, especially being locked in a chair like that and being a U.S. marshal and having been around the country panned worked with a lot of institutions where there prisoners involved and how we treat prisoners, for me, with cases like this, the bottom line is there are strict rules and a lot of times we get off track, when we do, you know, life at stake. So, I think the D.A. is looking into that very deeply to understand whether or not these officers were complicit in this man's death.
[Kosik:] So, how unusual is it to put someone who is having a bipolar episode in a restraining chair and then tase him and, if that's unusual, then how do you handle that kind of thing?
[Fogg:] I don't to be honest with you, I'm not sure if it's unusual because I've seen it happen a lot where prisoners get out of control and they restrain these people. The bottom line is, a lot of times the officers haven't had enough training in the mental aspects of what people what preexisting condition they may have had. Now, in this case, obviously, it seems like someone told them this man was suffering from bipolar disorder, which they should have immediately had protocols in place to fix it to deal with that. A lot of times law enforcement officers don't know. They just react to someone reacting back to them. And in that case, the person, if they have a disorder, they're going to continue to react more when you tase them and you restrain them, the gas is in their system. All these things, I guarantee probably led up to this man's death.
[Kosik:] All right. Thanks for your analysis, retired chief deputy U.S. marshal, Matthew Fogg.
[Blackwell:] All right. Nearly 20 million people are under a tornado threat today across the Plains and the Southwest. You probably know this is a part of the country that has dealt with severe weather all week. We're talking the hail and the flooding. Look at this I mean, this is in Oklahoma last night. We'll check in on the timing of these potential tornadoes and the storms on the way. And check this out on Facebook.
[Christi Paul, Cnn Anchor:] Hey, we want to give you a chance to give your mom a shootout this Mother's Day. Go to our Facebook page, Facebook.comNewDay, and send a message to your mom this mother's day. Also, you'll hear from me. I want to share with you a couple of things that I've learned from other moms that I think are really valuable.