PICKENS COUNTY, ALABAMA, Ala. — For Sabrina and Glenn Foster Sr., there are more questions than answers about the circumstances of their son’s death.
Glenn Foster Jr. died in police custody in the Pickens County, Alabama jail, run by the county sheriff, two days after being stopped for speeding down HWY 82 between Reform and Gordo Alabama.
“My message as a father who lost his son is, what did they do to my son while he was in jail for that many days? What happened to him physically, whether was he beat by inmates, was he beat by prison staff, or a share of police? Was there any altercations inside of the vehicle he was in when he was transported to the medical facility?” Foster Sr. said.
Why doesn’t the family have any of these answers in nearly a week since their son’s death?
According to Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann, family legal counsel alongside Ben Crump, “the Alabama Department of Forensics has not released a death certificate or the cause of death, is where we’re at.”
Zimmermann said due to the lack of information and cooperation from the SBI a division of Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Alabama state agency handling the case, they are taking matters into their own hands, “sometimes securing your own autopsy is the best way to ensure that a proper autopsy has been conducted.”
Especially with the fact that in August 2021, another man was also found dead in the Pickens County jail after a run-in with Reform and Gordo Alabama police, just like Foster.
“It is quite alarming. I think it’s larger than Pickens County. We are all alarmed at the number of black and brown men who have been killed systematically. We are devastated for the Foster family that they are part of what has been a continuing assault on black and brown men in this country," Zimmerman said.
Finding their son’s cause of death is a top priority for the family’s legal team, along with setting the record straight surrounding the state of Glenn Jr’s mental health.
According to Zimmermann, “they do not want further spreading of allegations about what was or was not his mental health he should be alive today and his mother and father should not be here today.”
The Foster family instead wants everyone to know their son the way they saw him.
“Glenn grew up being loved and as he became an adult, he exuded that to everyone that he was a loving person and he was a giver to everyone," said Sabrina, Glenn Jr.’s mother.
A tragic ending to a beloved figure of his family and his community.