Colin Kaepernick Paying for Autopsy for Man Who Mysteriously Died in Jail

Colin Kaepernick is helping a family looking for answers. According to TMZ Sports, the former NFL quarterback is paying for the autopsy of a 35-year-old man who died under mysterious circumstances in county jail after the medical examiner’s initial autopsy gave no answers. LaShawn Thompson died in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail in September 2022, and his family believes the facility’s poor conditions led to his death. TMZ Sports says the official autopsy came back “undetermined.”

Kaepernick reportedly heard the story and contacted Ben Crump, the attorney for the family, to fund a second, independent autopsy, which will likely cost at least $20,000. Kaepernick is upset about the conditions in which Thompson was arrested for a misdemeanor simple battery.

Per CBS News, Michael Harper, another family attorney, said Thompson  “was found dead in a filthy jail cell after being eaten alive by insects and bed bugs,” Harper went on to say, “They literally watched his health decline until he died. When his body was found one of the detention officers refused to administer CPR because in her words she ‘freaked out.’”

According to CNN, three officials at the jail have stepped down. The Fulton County Jail’s chief jailer and two assistant chief jailers resigned at the request of Sherriff Patrick “Pat” Labat during an executive staff meeting over the weekend. “It’s clear to me that it’s time, past time, to clean house,” Labat said in a statement on Monday. Thompson was arrested on June 12 last year and was placed in the psychiatric wing due to mental health issues. The sheriff’s office is not sharing any information about Thompson’s health condition when he was arrested “or what decisions he made regarding his right to accept or refuse medical care,” the statement said which was released on Thursday. 

Thompson’s brother, Brad McCrae, recently spoke at a news conference and shared his reaction to seeing images of his brother’s body. “It was heartbreaking because nobody should be seen like that,” he said. “Nobody should see that. But the first thing that entered my mind was Emmett Till.”

Kaepernick has spent his time being a social activist since being out of the NFL. In his last season in the league (2016), the 35-year-old began protesting during the national anthem by kneeling as he was not happy with the way Black people were being treated by the police.