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Relatives Say Probe Of Black Woman’s Mysterious Death Has Been ‘Racially Insensitive’

Shantell Fields, Lauren Smith-Fields' mother, stands with family members during a rally at the Morton Government Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Sunday. Smith-Fields was found dead in her Bridgeport apartment in December, and her family and friends marched in her memory on Sunday, which would have been her 24th birthday.

In a notice announcing an intent to sue, an attorney for the relatives of Lauren Smith-Fields accused a Connecticut police department of being “racially insensitive” toward them and bungling its investigation into the young Black woman’s death.

The family’s lawyer, Darnell Crosland, filed the notice Friday, saying his clients will be filing a lawsuit against the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where Smith-Fields, 23, died after a date with a man she had met on the dating app Bumble in mid-December.

 

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“The Police Department has been racially insensitive to this family and has treated this family with no respect and has violated their civil rights,” the notice says.

It’s very concerning that the police have not done more to investigate Matthew LaFountain, the 37-year-old white man who was on the date with Smith-Fields, he added.

“They have failed to investigate this matter, and they refuse to view the last person with Lauren Smith-Fields before she died as a person of interest. This behavior is unacceptable.”

In the notice, Crosland says police failed to contact Smith-Fields’ family, leaving her loved ones to find out about her death from her landlord. The first detective assigned to the case told the family to stop calling with questions about the investigation, Crosland also claims. The medical examiner has yet to release an autopsy report.

Source: Relatives Say Probe Of Black Woman’s Mysterious Death Has Been ‘Racially Insensitive’