“Grandma, please make them get off me”

DEMOTTE, Ind — The family of a 26-year-old Indiana father is demanding transparency after a plea for help ended with his death.

Rhyker Earl had two seizures on September 8, 2024. After the second seizure, his grandmother called for help.

“I called 911 thinking they were coming to help him,” Connie Widner said.

The family and their attorneys held a news conference Sept. 23 in DeMotte, Indiana, where Earl lived. They urged the Jasper County sheriff to release body-worn camera footage from the night they were called to help.

Both the family and the police agree on many details of what happened, including that Earl stopped breathing while handcuffed on the floor.

Rhyker Earl left behind two small children.(Gawlin Miracle)

Earl’s aunt, Miracle Glawinski, was at the scene. She remembers telling the paramedics, “He’s blue. Take his pulse, he’s blue. Please do something.”

Rescuers could not find a pulse. He was pronounced dead after two days in intensive care.

“Rhyker lost consciousness,” said Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family. “He never regained consciousness.”

Indiana State Police are investigating Earl’s death and ask the public for patience as they investigate.

Rhyker Earl poses with his family before his death on September 10. He had two young children.(Gawlin Miracle)

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New details from the family

Jasper County Sheriff Pat Williamson said in a statement that Earl offered “significant physical resistance to medical personnel at the scene.”

The family said it was a normal reaction for a person who has had a seizure to find a crowd of people at home.

“For someone who’s having a seizure,” Widner said, “it’s nerve-racking. They don’t know what’s going on. Rhyker’s had a few seizures and he’s never been aggressive. He’s disoriented when he comes out of a seizure. But in all the times we’ve called paramedics, he’s never been aggressive or anything like that toward anyone.”

Rhyker Earl was diagnosed with epilepsy approximately seven years before his death.(Gawlin Miracle)

The family said Rhyker had seizures about once a month for the past seven years. They say Rhyker had a seizure earlier that day and the same paramedics responded.

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“We were around for a lot of the attacks,” said Chuck Widner, Earl’s grandfather. “He was never, ever aggressive toward anyone.”

According to the sheriff’s statement, “multiple family members pleaded with (Earl) to remain calm and attempted to assure him that officers and medical personnel were there to help him.”

However, Earl’s family says they asked police for help.

“I told him Dad was here,” Chuck Widner said. Then he said he alerted paramedics. “He has bad asthma. He can’t breathe.”

“She’s begging for her life, saying, ‘Grandma, Grandma, please get them off me,'” Connie Widner said.

A statement from the Jasper County Sheriff said, “Per training, officers held him in a manner that did not impede his breathing, and Mr. Earl uttered words throughout the incident.”

“He says he has the tape and watched it and that Rhyker was talking,” said Steve Wagner, another family attorney. “But he didn’t say what Rhyker was saying. We know what Rhyker was saying. He was saying he couldn’t breathe.”

Rhyker and his aunt, Miracle Gawlinski, who was with him the night he was knocked unconscious and handcuffed.(Gawlin Miracle)

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Seizures and Paramedics

Earl is not the first person to run afoul of law enforcement after the attack. The Epilepsy Foundation has the Jeanne A Carpenter Epilepsy Legal Defense Fund to help people with epilepsy deal with legal issues. Many of them involve what happens After epileptic seizure.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “not everyone who has a seizure goes on to have a post-seizure state, but many do.”

According to the Epilepsy Foundation:

“During this period, the person is easily frightened, agitated, and unable to communicate effectively, and may become aggressive or belligerent, especially if approached because they may perceive this as a threat. The basic principle in dealing with any assault is that the person should not be restrained in any way unless it is essential for their personal safety or the safety of others. Restraining people during or shortly after an assault can escalate or accelerate aggression—the opposite of the intended result. As resistance to restraint increases, so does the threat to their life. Restraining someone face down and/or with their hands behind their back is particularly dangerous.”

In April 2024, a California man sued the Central Marin Police Authority after he was electrocuted by a police officer during an attack in his home. His lawyer posted body camera footage of the incident on his website.

The Epilepsy Foundation also states that “people with epilepsy and other disabilities are often wrongly arrested and imprisoned because police officers do not have adequate training to recognize and respond to seizures.”