A Wadesboro family is accusing the Anson County Jail of failing to get adequate medical care for a 28-year-old relative who died in its custody last month.
Shaquille Polk, along with his family, had begged the Anson County Jail to intervene when his health plummeted in July, his family said.
But Polk didn’t make it to a hospital until just hours before dying on Aug. 28.
Sheriff Landric Reid voluntarily asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate Polk’s death, he said. He also launched an internal investigation of department policy, but did not disclose its focus, he said.
Polk’s aunt said the family is still grasping for an explanation for why her nephew, as he reported to her, waited for care — and whether authorities could have saved him by acting faster.
Could it be that he was so sick that he became unable to recognize his needs and refused care? Or did he simply not get what he needed?
“Ain’t nothing that can fix it,” Brenda Polk said of losing her nephew, who at times had lived with her in Wadesboro. “I just want to know: Why?”
Four years in jail
Polk had been awaiting trial in the jail for nearly four years. Wadesboro police arrested him in October 2018, accusing him of gunning down 43-year-old Tywan Sturdivant and leaving him to die on the asphalt of a small Wadesboro street.
Polk insisted he’d been at his Wadesboro home during the slaying and maintained his innocence, according to court records. Police said they matched the casings scattered around Sturdivant’s body to evidence in Polk’s car.
While Polk waited in jail, his lawyers started the lengthy process of getting him legally recognized as mentally disabled, his aunt said. Court records indicate that the district attorney had pledged to seek the death penalty, and that Polk was held without bond.
A court record noted that at 6 foot 1, Polk weighed a healthy 170 pounds in June 2019.
But in July, Polk called his aunt with worrisome news, she said. He’d been unable to eat or use the restroom, Brenda Polk said, and hadn’t seen a doctor despite asking “several times.”
Brenda Polk said she called the jail, and her nephew soon saw a doctor.
The Polk family celebrated the life of Shaquille Polk at the Smith Funeral Home in Wadesboro, NC on Saturday, Sept. 03, 2022. The family says that Polk, an inmate in the Anson County jail, showed signs of serious illness and begged the Anson County jail for medical care for days before authorities took him to a hospital where he died August 28, 2022. John D. Simmons john@johndsimmons.photo
‘I think they’re trying to kill me’
But Shaquille Polk called her again in the first days of August with news that shocked her: He said his blood sugar had soared to “545 or 565,” she said.
The American Diabetes Association defines a “normal” blood sugar level as below 100. But the test hadn’t been followed by any more medical care, she said her nephew told her.
“I think they’re trying to kill me,” Brenda Polk remembered her nephew telling her.
Polk said her nephew’s legal defense team visited him twice in mid-August and started the process of requesting to transfer him to Central Prison, where the medical unit sometimes take in inmates who need more care than other facilities are equipped to provide.
On Aug. 27, Brenda Polk went to the jail for a scheduled visit at 3:30 p.m. But instead of her nephew, Polk said she was greeted by a jail staffer. That employee told her that she’d begged Shaquille Polk to see his family so that they could see how sick he was, but that he was too weak to leave his cell, Brenda Polk said.
Before the sun rose on Aug. 28, Brenda Polk says she woke up to a call from a jail official saying her nephew had been taken to Atrium Health Union in neighboring Monroe.
“You should get over there,” Polk recalled the official telling her. “He needs all the prayers he can get.”
Polk rushed to the hospital and found her nephew’s gaunt body – stomach engorged, medics performing CPR – nested among medical machines. He was brain-dead upon arrival, a doctor told her, but his heart kept beating as his family flooded into the hospital. He didn’t die until his grandmother had arrived, Polk said.
“His heart was the strongest part of him,” she told The Observer.
Two investigations ongoing
Sheriff Reid, whose department managesthe county jail, says Polk’s death has sparked two investigations: theinternal review of jail policies, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation inquiry.
Because Polk made it to the hospital before dying, Reid said, the SBI isn’t required to investigate as they would when an inmate dies at the jail. But he asked them to step in to ensure a trustworthy finding.
When complete, the SBI will share their findings with the district attorney, who could decide whether to file any criminal charges in the case. Citing the ongoing investigation, both the SBI and Reid declined to comment on or release documents about Polk’s time in custody.
No Sheriff’s office staff have been terminated or placed on leave for reasons related to Polk’s death, Reid said. The department hasn’t yet responded to The Charlotte Observer’s request for the jail’s written policies surrounding inmate health.
Inmates have access to kiosks through which they can request to see the jail’s doctor, who visits three times a week, Reid said. The sheriff said he’s “very confident” that inmates who do so don’t have to wait more than a few days for medical attention.
But for serious medical issues, jail staff have to take inmates out of the jail — either to a prison with in-house medical care or to a local hospital where at least one officer accompanies them, Reid said.
Sometimes they do so on the jail doctor’s advice, though Reid said his officers are trained to act on any serious or sudden medical issue they notice.
Shaquille Polk was buried on Saturday, Sept. 03, 2022 in Wadesboro, N.C. The Polk family says that Polk, an inmate in the Anson County jail, showed signs of serious illness and begged the Anson County jail for medical care for days before authorities took him to a hospital where he died August 28, 2022. John D. Simmons john@johndsimmons.photo
‘You have to be dead’
Diabetes doesn’t run in the Polk family, Brenda Polk said, so Shaquille’s relatives aren’t sure how the high blood sugar – which can cause delirium and confusion – combined with his mental disability affected his judgment.
“Say they want me to take medicine, and in my mind I’m too far gone,” Polk said. “I would want the doctor to reach out to my family member… say ‘Shaq is not taking his medication, can you talk to him and tell him to?’”
High blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, can cause many symptoms including vomiting, vision problems and mental incapacitation.
“High glucose or unintentional weight loss and particularly the combination should trigger evaluation by a medical professional,” University of North Carolina Diabetes Center Director John Buse said, speaking generally. “Neither is a good sign, and both together suggests the need for semi-urgent treatment.”
The range that ADA offered as an example topped out at 350, nearly 200 points below the level that Polk reported.
With a state autopsy pending and no medical records yet released to the family, the Polks are left with more questions than answers. They just want to know what happened to Shaquille.
This story was originally published September 12, 2022 at 10:14 AM.
Sara Coello investigates issues across North Carolina for The Charlotte Observer. Before joining the team, Coello covered criminal justice and breaking news for The Dallas Morning News and The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.
