A Florida man drank a cup of bleach in a courtroom after learning that the jury found him guilty of armed robbery.
Jermaine Bell, 38, has been detained for more than three years as a result of the robbery he was found guilty of in December of 2018. He pretended to be a courier and pulled a gun on workers at Millennium Engine Plating.
Bell was spotted drinking the bleach from a white disposable cup before an officer tried to get the prisoner to spit the substance up. However, Bell didn’t stop drinking from the cup until he finally sat down.
After consuming the bleach, he instantly felt extremely ill, and a stretcher was used to remove him from the Miami courtroom. After that, he was taken to a hospital for medical attention.
Bell is in stable condition at the hospital after drinking the bleach, but it remains unclear how he was able to obtain it in the courtroom. There are numerous questions from his family about why nobody tried to stop him as he was drinking the bleach.
Bell’s distant uncle, Reverend Jerome Starling, told Local 10: “I saw him drinking something that’s not proper. His attorneys are letting him drink it. Corrections let him drink it. All of a sudden, I see him collapse. And I said, how could this happen.”
Starling stressed that there should be accountability for what happened in the courtroom.
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The incident was also captured on camera by Bell’s cousin, who said that she tried to save him right away. “I was the only one that jumped up and tried to get him help. We thought we were going to lose him.”
Miami-Dade County Corrections and Miami-Dade Police are investigating the incident at this point.