Alexander said they were handcuffed and locked in the back of a police car without being read their rights. “When we were detained, we asked for phone calls,” he said. “We were not given phone calls.” The Louisiana State Police and Baton Rouge Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. Instead police confiscated their phones by intimidating them. “They made us sign a consent form,” he said.
When Alexander asked questions about this, police began cursing at him. “If he wants to be a dick about it, just put his ass back in the car,” he said a plainclothes officer yelled. “He’ll be here for another four hours” to wait for a court order to search his phone. They also forced Alexander’s friend to pee in a bottle in the back of a police car. Meanwhile, Alexander still didn’t know who had been killed, but
he had seven family members in Baton Rouge law enforcement, including his father, aunt, and uncle, along with Jackson. He was worried too, and kept asking to call his family. “I don’t know if one of them was shot and killed,” he said. “I was ignored.” He only found out it was his cousin who had been murdered after police released him around 7 p.m.
Alexander and his friend were taken to holding cells at a Louisiana State police station in Baton Rouge. By that time, Alexander, a diabetic, said he needed to take his diabetes medicine.
“Get away from the door, little bitch,” Alexander said one jailer yelled at his friend when he knocked on his cell door.
Rather than giving Alexander medicine, he said police called EMS, who just confirmed that his blood sugar was high and he needed medicine soon. Instead, “for hours they’re bringing me cookies, and peanuts, and crackers, and juice,” Alexander said. “That’s the exact opposite of what I need.” Officers were worried that he was lying about the medicine to commit suicide.
“What if you die in the back of my car?” he said one officer asked him, citing another time where he had an arrestee try to take an entire bottle of pills.
After several hours, Alexander said he became semi-comatose and was taken to Baton Rouge General Hospital. By this time, police had finally obtained footage from the Alexandria convenience store and realized Alexander hadn’t been involved with the shooting. They released Alexander’s friend from jail to go pick him up from the hospital. “I felt helpless,” Alexander said when he was pleading for medicine in the cell.
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