Ohio Sheriff Agrees to Outside Probe in Investigation of Jailed Double Amputee’s Death
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Pretel announced in late October 2025 that he will allow an outside agency to investigate the homicide of Tasha Grant, a 39-year-old double amputee who died in a hospital while being restrained in May of this year. Grant was detained at the Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland, Ohio for 15 days before being taken to the MetroHealth Medical Center due to chest pain.
After several days at MetroHealth, an altercation led to three hospital police officers and a sheriff’s deputy forcefully restraining Grant. Body camera footage taken moments before her death showed Grant yelling “I can’t breathe” 23 times during the incident. The medical examiner for the county ruled her death a homicide. [See: PLN, Nov. 2025, p. 35.]
For months, Pretel had wanted to keep the investigation of Grant’s death an internal matter within Cuyahoga County. It is unclear what changed his mind, but the reversal comes in the wake of Grant’s family members and local activist groups public demand for an independent probe.
While Stanley Jackson, the attorney representing Grant’s family, initially called for the investigation to be led by the state-level Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Pretel gave the job instead to the nearby Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department. “This family and the community deserve better,” Jackson told The Marshall Project. “There’s no consistency, and there’s no real accountability, and this is just another example of that.”
Source: The Marshall Project
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