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It took Azellia Thompkins nearly a year to watch the video of her attempted suicide in the Scurry County jail. Now, she's hoping others will watch it. "When I finally looked at it, I was like, 'okay, now somebody else has to see this - because that was ridiculous,'" said Thompkins. Traffic stop turns into jail nightmare It started with a traffic stop in June 2024. Thompkins was getting a ride home from a coworker after an overnight shift at the Walmart in Snyder, a small town west of Abilene. When officers checked her background, they found an outstanding traffic ticket and arrested her. Thompkins says that in jail, a doctor prescribed her anxiety medication during a telehealth appointment. The 34-year-old says it didn't take long for her to realize something was wrong. "I did not know what manic was until that medication just really set me off." She remembers exercising and writing obsessively. "[The doctor] told me if there was anything wrong with the medication that she prescribed to me to let them know," she said, referring to the detention officers. "But when I let them know, they did not care." Two weeks after she arrived, Thompkins was moved to another cell. Hours of suffering caught on camera "They took my clothes off," she said. "They put me in a cell that had a grate in the floor, and that's where I was supposed to, I guess, urinate and use the restroom." She was given a smock to wear and a blanket. Video from the cell shows Thompkins pacing, rocking back and forth, and braiding her hair over the course of several hours. She says she had to ask for water when she was thirsty. "I felt like they hated me and I don't know why," she remembers. "I've never been in there, I've never met these people." At one point in the video, Thompkins ties the smock to the grate in the floor, then around her neck. She covers herself with the blanket as her face turns purple. Two guards - a man and a woman - come in and untie the smock, then the man tries to take both items away. After a short struggle that resembles a tug-of-war, the officer punches Thompkins multiple times. She spins around and falls flat, lying motionless on top of the grate. Thompkins admits it's still difficult to watch. "You know, I didn't do that for attention," she said. "And for an officer to come in there, watch me do that on camera, strike me three times in the head, watch me fall to the floor and then, according to his own statement, continue on with his daily duties as if I was nobody, or nothing." Video shows the officer returned the smock minutes later. Thompkins says once she recovered, she called her sister and instructed her to sell anything in Thompkins' house to make bail. After 24 days in the Scurry County jail, she was released. She spent months afterwards learning how to request records of her arrest and incarceration. "For me, myself, I wanted the proof of what happened," she said. DA dismisses all charges During that time, the Scurry County district attorney's office dismissed all charges against her. Thompkins filed complaints with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the Texas Rangers, and the Department of Justice. She says she also met with the Scurry County sheriff, who she says promised to look into it. Thompkins says she never heard back from him. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards responded to her complaint with a letter that said the agency "found no violations of minimum jail standards." However, the commission felt her complaint "may be in criminal in nature." Ricky Armstrong, the TCJS assistant director, would not comment on Thompkins' case specifically, but he did say the agency receives 300-400 complaints each month. A lot of those, he said, are related to issues not under the purview of the TCJS. "The majority of our complaints are unfounded," said Armstrong. "Probably less than 3%." The TCJS refers any potential criminal matter to the sheriff's office in charge of the jail, the district attorney's office in that county, the Texas Rangers and the FBI. But, Armstrong says, the TCJS cannot make any of those entities actually investigate. Both the Rangers and the FBI confirmed to the I-Team that no investigation took place in the case of Azellia Thompkins. Advocates say Thompkins' story isn't unique Thompkins' experience is far too common, says Krish Gundu, the co-founder of the Texas Jail Project. The nonprofit, which is based in Houston, aims to end mass incarceration across Texas. "The whole story is just gut-wrenching," said Gundu. But she says her team was not surprised. "We were all like, 'yes, this is horrific, that is gut-wrenching,' but it is not unique at all. We hear about this all the time." Gundu's group attends every meeting of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and closely follows each time a jail is found to be non-compliant. According to the most recent data on the TJP's website, 58% of noncompliant reports involved at least one mental health violation. "You can say all you want that you want to run it like a hospital, but we all know a jail is run by minimum standards," said Gundu. "You can claim that you want to, but you don't have to - there's no one that's going to hold you accountable. Because at the end of the day it's a jail, and the buck stops with the sheriff." For months, Scurry County Sheriff Trey Wilson ignored the I-Team's calls and emails. It was only after a producer began contacting county commissioners that Wilson emailed a short statement: "This incident was investigated by the Texas Rangers and the Texas Jail Commission with both determining no wrongdoing. No further comment." Thompkins testifies After the Texas Commission on Jail Standards denied Thompkins' complaint, she drove six hours to Austin to speak in front of commissioners. Here are excerpts of her testimony. "I was arrested and booked into Scurry County jail on multiple non-violent charges, which were later dismissed by the district attorney in the interest of justice, but not before my mental and emotional health had been destroyed." "I cried. I begged for help over and over. I was screaming underwater. Eventually, I attempted suicide. The jailer's response was a physical response which was captured on camera." "I was left naked on the floor of the room with no doctor, no medical intervention." Thompkins said she felt better after testifying at the TCJS meeting. "I feel a lot more calm," she told us in Austin. "It felt like my responsibility to come at least in person and talk to them." For Krish Gundu and the Texas Jail Project, Thompkins' case is one more reason to keep fighting for change. "The question we should be asking is, is this how you want to be treated? Or is this how any one of us should be treated if we're in a psychiatric crisis? And if you're not in psychiatric crisis, what you're doing by treating somebody in this way is perpetuating trauma."
