Bodycam footage revealed how one woman’s visit to the hospital to receive treatment for a mental health crisis escalated in a violent encounter with Florida deputies, leading to a lawsuit against the cops involved.
The attorney representing Nathalia Granada filed a complaint in September 2024 accusing two Broward County sheriff’s deputies, Helmut Murillo and Juan Canino, of excessive force, battery, and civil rights deprivation.
Bodycam video shows the October 2023 encounter between Granada, her cousin and sponsor for immigration Alex Granada, and the deputies in the parking lot of the Woodmont Hospital in Tamarac, Florida.
According to the complaint, Alex took Nathalia — who suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — to a hospital on Oct. 30, 2023, after she began suffering a severe mental health breakdown.
When Nathalia refused to get out of the car in the belief that she would be harmed, Alex went inside the hospital to request a paramedic who spoke Spanish to come examine her and help her into the facility.
The paramedic who responded to Alex’s plea declined to help Nathalia and called 911, telling dispatchers, “She’s crazy, won’t get out of the car,” according to the lawsuit.
A few minutes later, Deputy J.H. Redfearn arrived and approached Alex and Nathalia in the hospital parking lot.
Bodycam footage shows him requesting Nathalia to exit the vehicle, but she only continued speaking Spanish from the driver’s seat, visibly distracted. After her cousin asked for a deputy who spoke Spanish, Deputy Murillo arrived at the scene shortly after.
Murillo was “aggressive and hostile from the beginning,” the complaint states, and after Alex attempted to tell Murillo about Nathalia’s mental health illnesses and the crisis she was suffering, Murillo asked him to take several steps away from the car and stay a short distance away while he questioned Nathalia.
During the entire encounter, Nathalia was uncombative and displayed behavior that was “whimsical and childlike, not the least bit aggressive or threatening,” the filing states.
Footage shows Alex speaking to Deputy Redfearn about Nathalia’s long history of mental health disorders and her immigration from Colombia to the United States before he finally implores the deputy to help her. At the same time, Murillo is seen questioning Nathalia a short distance away.
As Redfearn returns to the Granadas’ car, Murillo is seen walking around the vehicle to the passenger’s seat where Nathalia has moved. He handcuffs Nathalia’s right wrist and requests her to get out, telling her he will have to pull her “by the chain” if she doesn’t comply.
Nathalia, visibly distressed and crying, doesn’t leave the car and Murillo forcefully yanks her out and takes her to the ground.
Deputies Redfearn and Canillo join Murillo to restrain Nathalia who is struggling against their maneuvers.
The video shows Murillo rolling Nathalia onto her stomach, taking her left arm, and bending it backward until an audible snap is heard, eliciting pained screams from Nathalia. According to Nathalia’s attorney, Murillo broke her humerus bone.
Canillo then held the arm down at an “unnatural angle,” according to the lawsuit while Murillo handcuffed her. Footage showed Murillo finally moving Nathalia to an upright sitting position while she continued rambling in Spanish.
According to Murillo’s incident report, cited by West Virginia attorney John H. Bryan on his The Civil Rights Lawyer YouTube channel, Murillo stated that Nathalia “could not hold normal conversations with me for more than a second or two before going into her erratic behavior.”
As he questioned her, he reported that she was “visibly upset” and “moved to the passenger seat of the vehicle … to create space between she and I.”
When he walked to the passenger’s side, he asked her to exit the car multiple times, and handcuffed her right arm “to gain control and compliance,” before pulling her out “to safely be able to get control over her.”
During her detainment, Murillo reported that a “brief struggle” ensued, but he “was able to get control of her left arm and place it behind her back which allowed me to properly and safely detained her.”
He stated that while he handcuffed her, he “heard a popping sound but was unaware of what it was.”
Once she was detained, deputies placed shackles around her legs and escorted her into the hospital in a wheelchair where she screamed and kicked until until staff members were forced to sedate her to evaluate her.
It’s unclear whether the Broward County Sheriff’s Office reviewed the bodycam footage and disciplined Murillo or any of the deputies involved in the encounter as a result of their actions.
The Granadas’ suit seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory damages.
Watch the full bodycam footage below:
