A bizarre incident where one inmate drank bleach in the courtroom during his trial has raised questions about how the inmate managed to sneak such a dangerous liquid into the courtroom and why no one intervened in time to stop him from drinking it. An investigation into the matter is underway.
A Florida man drank a cup of bleach in a courtroom only moments after hearing that the jury found him guilty of armed robbery.
Jermaine Bell, 38, spent more than three years in custody after he disguised as a courier and pulled a gun on employees at the Millennium Engine Plating in December 2018, per Fox News.
During his Miami-Dade County courtroom hearing, Bell somehow got hold of a disposable cup containing bleach and started to drink it.
The robbery suspect downed the cup of corrosive substance, even when an officer approached him with a trash can and attempted to have him spit out the liquid.
It is unclear what happened afterward but another clip shows Bell taken out of the trial room on a stretcher as he is shifted to the hospital for treatment while wearing an orange jumpsuit.
According to the outlet Local10, one of the prisoners became sick after consuming the corrosive liquid and was shifted to the hospital.
He is now in stable condition at the hospital after swallowing the bleach, however, the inmate's family is raising questions about why nobody interfered as he was drinking the product.
"I see him drinking something that’s not right," Reverend Jerome Starling, a distant relative of Bell, told Local 10. "His attorneys are letting him drink it. Corrections letting him drink it."
"All of a sudden I see him collapse. And I said how could this happen," Starling said, adding that someone needs to be held responsible for what happened in the courtroom.
Bell's cousin, the one who recorded the incident, said she immediately attempted to save him: "I was the only one like that jumped up and tried to get him help."
"[It’s] very emotional for the whole family. We thought we were going to lose Jermaine that day," she told Local 10.
Miami-Dade police and County Corrections are doing an investigation to determine how Bell got his hands on the dangerous liquid and how he managed to sneak it into the courtroom.
While the Miami-Dade inmate is reportedly recovering from the incident, his family is also questioning the accountability of the police officials and staff present there.
An investigation into the matter is currently underway.