Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat issued a statement on May 7 following a call by three Fulton County Board of Commissioners members urging residents to ask Gov. Brian Kemp to investigate whether he should be suspended.
According to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton Commission Vice Chair Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, joined by Republican commissioners Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne, called on May 6 for a state investigation into Labat’s conduct.
The call was made after allegations that a former inmate at the county jail, Rashaad Muhammad, suffered severe medical neglect that led to the amputation of his legs and several fingers.
Labat’s statement said “what has been reported regarding Mr. Muhammad is deeply troubling and heartbreaking. Any time a person suffers medical complications while in custody, it demands serious scrutiny and accountability.”
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Labat said his department has asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for an independent review of the matter.
“While the investigation is ongoing, I will not prejudge the outcome or attempt to debate this case publicly. But I will say this clearly: If failures occurred within our system, they will be addressed,” Labat’s statement continued.
Meanwhile, he said the sheriff’s office is reviewing “medical procedures, inmate welfare protocols, staffing coordination, and emergency response processes to ensure every person in our custody receives appropriate care and attention.”
Labat, in the statement, acknowledged that the Fulton County jail has for decades faced overcrowding, staffing shortages, aging infrastructure, and growing mental and medical health demands.
“However, those realities cannot become excuses,” he said. “Our responsibility is to protect public safety while ensuring constitutional and humane treatment for every individual in our custody.”
The commissioners’ push came after civil rights attorney Ben Crump addressed commissioners and demanded accountability and an independent probe into the treatment of Muhammad.
Muhammad told commissioners he repeatedly requested antibiotics while jailed last August because of a medical condition that made him vulnerable to infection. He said his condition worsened until other inmates had to seek help for him. Crump said Muhammad later went into septic shock and a coma before undergoing amputations to save his life.
Muhammad spent 11 days at the Rice Street jail before being transferred Aug. 22 to Grady Hospital, where he remained for months undergoing surgeries. Charges against him, including aggravated assault, were dropped in April.
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. also called for an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, though he cautioned against immediately blaming the sheriff for medical care issues.
The AJC reported that the jail remains under scrutiny following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found unconstitutional conditions at the facility after the 2022 death of inmate Lashawn Thompson.
