SPARTA, Ga. — A Hancock County woman, who recently died after being taken into custody, had indicated she was going to take her own life once she was jailed, The Milledgeville Union-Recorder has learned.

Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus said 28-year-old Brianna Marie Grier reportedly made such a statement while refusing to comply with deputies with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. The deputies were attempting to put her into the backseat of a patrol car following her arrest on the morning of Friday, July 15.

“She made a statement that she was going to kill herself if she got to the jail,” Sheriff Primus told the newspaper during a telephone interview Monday morning.

Grier had just been taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and drunkeness at her parents’ home on Hickory Grove Church Road, Primus said. 

The sheriff said Grier’s mother had called 911 earlier requesting deputies because her daughter was at her home threatening her.

“We received a 911 call from Mary Grier who stated her daughter was at her home, banging on her door and pulling on her door and making verbal threats towards them (her parents),” Primus said.

Brianna’s father’s name is Marvin Grier. The Griers live at 4714 Hickory Grove Church Road, off Shoals Road near the Jewel Community of Warren County, which borders Hancock County.

Primus said when the deputies arrived on the scene, they immediately took Brianna Grier into custody and handcuffed her in front. The sheriff noted the cuffs were double-locked.

The sheriff said the reason she was not handcuffed from behind was because when she found out she was going to be arrested, she fell to the ground.

“That’s when they turned around and put the handcuffs on her front because they had to pick her up and didn’t want to put her hands behind her, because they were afraid they were going to hurt her arms,” Primus said.

He said deputies then attempted to place her into the patrol car, but she would not cooperate.

Deputies ended up having to physically pick the young woman up and place her into the rear seat of the patrol car.

Primus said once she was inside the patrol car that the deputy drove off from the scene at a speed of between 20 and 25 mph. The deputy immediately stopped the patrol car when he learned that she had jumped out, Primus said.

At that time, deputies called for emergency response teams to come to the scene to render medical treatment to the injured woman. She was administered medical attention at the scene by firefighters/first responders with Hancock County Fire Rescue Services and personnel with Grady Emergency Medical Services before being flown by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. She was hospitalized there for nearly a week before she died this past Friday afternoon.

An autopsy has been requested to determine the cause and manner of her death. Preliminary results of that autopsy, which was performed at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Laboratory in Decatur, still were pending Monday afternoon.

Primus said the two deputies involved in making the arrest have not been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the results of the investigation.

“From the interviews that we have done, internally, we have not discovered any negligence on their part,” Primus said.

The sheriff said he had shared such information with the Mary Chandler, special agent in-charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 6 Office in Milledgeville, whose agency was called immediately following the death of Grier.

“We know that Brianna Grier had mental problems, because we have had to transport her on numerous occasions to mental facilities here in the State of Georgia,” Primus said. “Her mother is aware of that and her mother has called us several times to do that. When this happened, her mother wanted us to take her to a hospital. Her mother is well aware that her daughter had mental problems, just as well as a drug problem.”

The sheriff said there was no way that deputies could leave Grier there at her parents’ house in the state that she was in at the time.

“We needed to remove her from that property because she was the one causing the disturbance,” Primus said. “We could not leave her there.”

As of Monday, the case remained under investigation by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Hancock County Coroner’s Office.

“The GBI is leading the investigation,” Primus said.