It’s a loss that the family of Richard Degraffenreid wasn’t prepared for.
“He’s my only son, my first born,” Ruth Garrison, Degraffenreid’s mother told 41 Action News.
Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies booked the 35-year-old man into the jail Thursday around 11 p.m.
His ex-wife tells 41 Action news Degraffenreid was at the jail because he fled the scene of an accident on Tuesday while out on parole.
On Friday, the Jackson County Executive’s Office and Department of Corrections declined to do any on camera interviews, but in a statement wrote that Degraffenreid was evaluated by a nurse before getting booked.
When he became “combative, they restrained him in a chair.
“They said he was unresponsive when they found him—the guards—and they gave him CPR until the ambulance got there and when the ambulance they transfer him to Truman,” Garrison said.
Hospital staff began to alert Garrison of what had happened in the wee hours of the morning.
“Telling me my son had been brought in by ambulance—they were—resuscitating him,” Garrison said.
But despite doctors’ efforts at Truman Medical Center, Degraffenreid died as jail guards watched.
“They were outside in the hallway when I finally got to go in at 3:30 this morning. That’s when his heart had stopped beating,” Garrison said.
The county said the restraint chair that was used met national accreditation standards.
Those standards request visual observations at least every 15 minutes.
The county won't say how long Degraffenreid was restrained in the chair. They only say he was at the facility for two and a half hours.
Degraffenreid’s mother says her son didn’t have any known medical problems.
“He worked out, cutting grass every day. He was healthy as far as I know,” Garrison said.
The death is now under investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
