Cannady, who by all appearances may have been having a mental health crisis, left her home with her three children in freezing temperatures, without coats, hats, or gloves, draped only in bedsheets. Travelling by foot, they entered into a hospital at 1:09 p.m. Cannady believed the police were trying to kill her. A sheriff’s deputy attended the hospital but decided Cannady was having psychiatric issues. When Cannady and her three children abruptly left the hospital, the deputy followed but noted “[Cannady] continued to demonstrate fear and anxiety interacting with [him].” Sheriffs took no action to protect the children. The family continued to wander.
They arrived at Cannady’s mother’s home at 3:30 p.m. in a state of panic, saying the police had bugged her phone and were trying to kill her. They left an hour later. Cannady’s family attended the Sheriff’s Office and reported them missing, reporting that she was in a mental health crisis. Shortly thereafter, a Good Samaritan (who we will call ‘Sam’) called 9-1-1 to report the family in distress, reporting the children crying and freezing. After fifteen minutes went by with no response, Sam called 9-1-1 again.
Just before 5:00 p.m. a deputy arrived and told Sam “you understand that there is nothing we can do about that right,” and promptly left, claiming he had to aid another deputy with a felonious traffic stop. He lied. The traffic stop had concluded and did not involve felonies. The deputy was giving Sam the brush off.
At about 5:15, the deputy’s supervisor ordered him to resume the search for the family. Body-worn camera footage revealed a phone call with an unknown person, in which the deputy: (a) complained about being ordered to perform a welfare check; (b) complained that he wanted to do real police work; (c) called the assignment a “dumb fucking welfare check,” and (d) surmising “it is just the homeless being homeless.” The deputy further stated that there was no point in looking for them, just to “put the kids in fucking foster are so they can get raped.” The deputy continued, “The kids will still be there and they will be just fine. … People in Pontiac just don’t die. … It’s a CYA [cover your ass] because a dumb fucking ghetto politician [Sam] can’t just leave well enough alone just because it is kind of cold out. … I don’t particularly care.”
