Say her name, Symone Nicole Marshall, her life mattered and at only 22 it’s over. In a story line that has become all too common in today’s society another young Black woman has died while in police custody in Texas.
Her May 10th death in custody of police brings back the memory of Sandra Bland who also died in police custody in Texas last year.
If the story she told her family while in custody is true, Marshall should have been taken to the hospital for medical attention before she was ever placed in police custody. Symone Marshall told her sister, Honey Marshall, in phone calls from the Walker County Jail that someone had run her off the road causing her car to flip over multiple times and land in a ditch. At the time, Marshall had another passenger in the car who was also detained but bailed out shortly after. Symone was taken into custody for not having proper license to operate the vehicle.
In phone calls from the jailhouse in Huntsville, Texas, Marshall complained to her sister of her head hurting and told her she kept “blacking out.” Honey Marshall told New York Daily News
“I called the jail several times and requested for them to take her to a real hospital and they wouldn’t do so. If they would have done this, her death could have been prevented and my sister would still be here. My heart hurts so bad. She was my best friend. I am so angry that they did this to her.”
If Symone’s grandmother is to be believed, some kind of “shot” was given to the young mother shortly before her death. She also infers that there was some type of “shell game” with Marshall’s bail. The grandmother tells of Symone’s bail amount changing multiple times.
Symone’s anguished grandmother took to Facebook to voice her frustration. Furious at the fact that her beloved granddaughter is no longer with them and the fact that the family has received little information regarding her death.
Her statement reads in part
After 2 1/2 weeks in jail, Symone spoke to her sister in California and she told her that she couldn’t get them to take her to the hospital no matter how much she complained about pain in various parts of her body. She told her sister that she wasn’t feeling right and that they had given her a shot of something earlier and she needed to go lay down for awhile. My baby never woke up again. The Justice of The Peace in Huntsville, Mr.Countz, was the only one we were able to speak to when we received this horrible news. He was very evasive and less than honest about what happened. He didn’t even mention the accident until we brought it up.
Read her full statement https://www.facebook.com/mayme.marshall.3/posts/456502687891326
A GoFundMe page has been set up by two of Marshall’s sisters in hopes of helping the family gather the monies needed to bury Symone. In the description,
Symone was a loving sister, friend and mother. She didn’t deserve to be held in jail like a criminal and lose her life. This act of careless negligence on behalf of this Texas Jail cost Symone her life at only 22 years old. She leaves behind a precious 3 year old daughter that loved her mommy more than anything in this world and Symone loved her the same. We are seeking 3 things to help us: media attention on this issue, justice for the two weeks of gross negligence that resulted in her death, and donations toward giving Symone a beautiful funeral. We appreciate the love and support. #BlackLivesMatter
The goal was to raise $5,500 and in 2 days they have surpassed that goal, currently having raised, $7.157.
There have been no press conferences concerning Symone’s death. The Walker County police are not talking. No autopsy has been released as of yet but on the GoFundMe page the sisters state that Marshall died of a blood clot in her lungs and that she died in the Walker County Jail. Atlanta Black Star reported this morning that an independent journalist Kevin M. Oliver, has provided them with different information. According to Oliver, who is said to have interviewed Walker County Jail administrator Captain Steve Fisher, Symone was transferred to a hospital before death. He reports that Symone Marshall began experiencing what was described as a “seizure” on May 10. Medical staff arrived soon after to treat her and confirmed the she still had a pulse. Marshall was then taken to a local hospital still alive but pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
I found a beautiful poem dedicated to Symone Marshall, read it below
Symone Nicole Marshall ( Texas)
Symone Nicole Marshall brought life into this world with thanksgiving and praise.
Dreams of life with stability and affirmations of love, she encounters hopelessness.
The Lone Star State and black women in custody are synonymous with death.
The road of destruction is not the end of her story; the incarceration of her flesh without due diligence expired her life.
Her time is shifted from horizons of life fulfillment to darkness unexplained.
Cold and alone, her soul is departing from her as she dream of life left behind.
Holding onto humanity for civil rights of living, she encounters symptoms of truth.
Walker County Jail in Huntsville Texas engraved her rights with the graveyards of instructions from their code of silence.
Without the necessity of forensic diagnosis her voice was unheard in the storms of her words.
Drifting in the grave of her captives, she became a morgue of lies unable to sustain the truth of her tears.
She laid in silence as the dimensions of her thoughts preceded her from life to death.
The uniform of justice concentrated on conversations of elite forces to recommend history be told on the steps of City Hall.
Black History says Gynnya McMillen, Sandra Bland, Natasha McKenna and Symone Nicole Marshall were slaves of the master’s house in 2016.
Written by
Theodore Mosley
May 17,2016
Like it? Don’t like it? Tell the poet http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/symone-nicole-marshall-texas/
To keep hearing of these women dying in police custody is heartbreaking, there have been at least 4 in the last year. Why does it keep happening? How can these traffic stops and minor non violent incidents keep leading to death? Will anyone ever have to answer for these lives snuffed out too soon, in a place where the public has no access, where the only witnesses are coworkers who stick together?
Say her name. Say it until the mainstream media does. Say it until her family has answers. Say it until it stops happening. Say it until Black men and women no longer have to fear the people they PAY to “protect” and “serve” them. Say it until justice is served.
Symone
Nicole
Marshall
#Blacklivesmatter
