by STEVE HAN
At least four authorities saw or heard San Diego student Daniel Chong screaming for help while locked in a cell for five days with no food or water, but still left him unoccupied as they believed someone else was responsible, according to a recent investigation.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency had neither policy nor training for its employees on monitoring the holding cells, and there was no requirement to check the cells at the end of each day. The DEA declined to comment and said those who failed to assure the safety of Chong are subject to “ongoing internal disciplinary matter,” according to a three-page summary of the investigation.
The inspector general at the Justice Department found that the DEA’s San Diego office didn’t have a system to track detainee movements as no cameras were installed inside the cells.
“The DEA is confident that these measures will help to prevent similar incidents in the future,” the agency said in a statement.
Police arrested Chong, now a 26-year-old student at University of California, San Diego, in April 2012 at his friends house and seized 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Nine people, including Chong, were arrested.
Although employees put him in the cell and told him that they would return shortly, Chong was left unattended for five days. He ingested methamphetamine and drank his own urine out of desperation to survive before trying to cut himself with broken glasses to kill himself. The DEA later reached a settlement of $4.1 million with Chong.
Photo via MSN
