Family seeks answers after teen dies in VA jail cell

VA state police are investigating the death of an 18 year old Radford University man who was found dead in his cell at New River Valley Regional Jail. A month after the September 12th incident the family is still seeking answers. Police continue to note his “illegal recreational drug use,” but have not given a cause of death.

The Roanoke times reports:

After seeing the Snapchat video, Aris’ family can’t understand why he wound up in a jail cell instead of a medical facility.

“It’s obvious that he needed to go to the hospital,” said Aris’ mother, Dixiana Perez.

Two witnesses to the arrest raised similar concerns.

“I just can’t believe the police didn’t take him to the hospital or something,” one student said in a message to a friend shortly after Aris died.

“I was one of the last people to see him other than the police and when I was talking to him before they arrested him he was foaming at the mouth and could barely open his eyes,” the student continued in the message, which was obtained by The Washington Post and confirmed by the freshman who wrote it. “But he died in the drunk tank.”

A second student also described Aris as foaming at the mouth during his arrest, according to two friends.

The school rejected their accounts.

“The University is unaware of the assertion of any ‘foaming at the mouth,’ as this was not observed by the Radford University Police Department nor was it reported to officers,” it said in a statement. “There was no indication of medical distress.”

Radford does not allow alcohol in its dorms, and the school said its resident assistants and directors are “trained to notify the police if they encounter a student suspected to be under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.”

Not all students found intoxicated at Radford are arrested. Some receive only conduct referrals, resulting in punishments that include warnings, fines and reflective writing assignments.

But students who get into trouble for alcohol at Radford are three times as likely to be arrested as students at nearby Virginia Tech. Both schools arrested 19 students for liquor law violations in 2018, according to their disciplinary records, though Virginia Tech has triple the number of students and alcohol referrals.

Radford said Aris was arrested for his own safety. But his mother believes the school failed him.

“If somebody is making bubbles at his mouth,” Dixiana said, “how can they not know something is wrong?”