The Mysterious Death of Carol Anne Gotbaum

"I'm not a terrorist! I'm a sick mom! I need help!" yelled the mother of three after she missed the 2:58 p.m. US Airways Express flight to Tucson, said airport workers who witnessed the confrontation.
They said one cop put his knee in her back to restrain her while others grabbed her flailing arms.

"I believe she was a little not-there. She kept punching. She kept screaming. She kept kicking," one worker told The News. "She looked really scared, really frightened. I think she was afraid to go to jail." Carol Anne Gotbaum was handcuffed and left in an airport holding cell. Police say they checked on her every 15 minutes; she had been screaming the entire time, but at one point, police realized she was quiet and found that she was not breathing. She had been handcuffed behind her back but when Gotbaum was found, her hands were front of her and the handcuffs were up by her neck, leading police to believe she was trying to get out of the handcuffs.It took over two hours for the Phoenix airport authorities to notify Noah Gotbaum that his wife had died in police custody at Phoenix airport. He called the airport's communications centre on Sept. 28 at 4:39 p.m., 5:27 p.m. and 6:01 p.m.
Carol Gotbaum was obviously destressed and even verbalized that, "I sick." Why wasn't she immediately assessed by some kind of medical control; ie airport EMS.
Anyone who has worked security for any kind of time knows that you NEVER leave a hysterical person in ANY form of physical or chemical restraint unattended.(Constant visual observation is most often required.) What if this woman had a seizure or a heart attack? The fact that the prelimary assessment is that she suffocated/strangled herself on the metal handcuffs tells me that she should have NEVER be left alone in that holding cell. Hope the City of Tucson has a good legal team because this has MAJOR liability written all over it!
Gotbaum, 45, broke down several times on her flight from New York and confided to a passenger sitting next to her that she was going to rehab.

"Ms. Gotbaum would break into tears during the flight and while they were speaking with each other," according to a police statement describing an account by the passenger, Jodi Hall.
According to the account from Hall, "Ms. Gotbaum said that someone would have come with her, but it was her decision to do it on her own."

The homicide unit has wrapped up its probe of the death, and Sgt. Andy Hill says it appears that the police acted appropriately. "If your blood alcohol is three times the legal limit for driving, if they have prescription drugs that are part of their system, that's going to cause problems," said Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill, referring to the autopsy report.

Meanwhile, a Gotbaum family attorney said the findings increase the likelihood that he'll file a claim - the first step toward a lawsuit - against the city. "She died as a result of being put in that room with that chain, alone and unobserved," said Phoenix attorney Michael Manning, adding that the family has not made a final decision about legal action. "She didn't die because she was drinking. She died because she was asphyxiated."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Carol
• Anne
• Gotbaum
• death
• airport
• phoenix
• police
• cctv
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• released
• layover

[emptyeiganjo]

how in the world would she strangle herself when she got handcuffed behind her back, i think the airline's story is complete bullshit

[baysideful]

They killed her!

She should have been put in a straightjacket & taken to a hospital!

let the doctors handel her

She was probably in withdrawal!

No reason to kill her!!!

or anyone!!!

[rsoarch7]

Stupid humans.

[TheSkylur44]

The music is TERRIBLY inappropriate given the event.

[m29p29]

PIGS!

[liberalinthedesertaz]

@tee895 oh really? so the cops should just be able to kill anyone because they are nuts? its people like you that have no compassion for anyone else.

[Botie2]

This is what happens when you give teenagers a teaser, a gun, cuffs and a uniform and then ask them to deal with people that need professional help.

[DeadSonsgod]

The only fault here is that they should have kept an eye on her because she was so drugged up. In that they messed up.

[DeadSonsgod]

They found she had accidentally asphyxiated. The problem seems to stem from the fact you guys do not understand is that when they say chocked to death you get a mental image of strangulation. What most likely happened was because she had a blood alcohol level of .24 and was on meds was that she passed out fell down landed funny and chocked to death. A really stupid but tragic death. Really stupid but really tragic. Well heres a rule of thumb. Don't get drunk and throw things at people.

[DeadSonsgod]

She then spent the next five to ten minutes screaming in her cell. They only became concerned when she stopped screaming but did not check on her till later. When they came she to check on her she was dead and an autopsy revealed she accident chocked to death. Now some of you will go "That is because she was chocked to death by the police and they covered it up!" which is a fine thing to think because your dumb. The family had another coroner look at the body and you know what was found?

[DeadSonsgod]

Well its obvious we have some people on you tube who do not have any intelligence to go fact check so I will do it for you. She was a drunk who was on meds and had a little alcohol on her way to a rehab who could not get on to her flight as it had been overbooked. She got angry and started yelling and threw a pda at an employee so security was called in. They arrested her and took her to a back room.