Death by Cop 2021-2025
Search fatalities
You can use any or all of the fields to refine the search.
Michael Broady Jr.
Age : 41
Gender : Male
Race : Black
Date : 08/22/2021
Location : Reform, Pickens County
City : Reform
County : Pickens
State : Alabama
Agency : Reform Police Department; Pickens County Sheriff’s Office; Gordo Police Department; Carrollton Police Department
Officer(s) :Kallenna Homan; Jeremy Herd; Taylor Gregory; Austin Moss; Officer Doss; Officer Anderson
Cause of Death : Asphyxiation
Event : Killed while in custody during law enforcement encounter
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 08/22/2021, 40-year-old Michael Broady Jr. died after police from multiple Pickens County agencies restrained and repeatedly shocked him with Tasers following a 911 call that Broady himself made for help. Broady was at a residence in Reform when another person allegedly threatened to kill him. Broady called 911, bringing Reform Police Officer Kallenna Homan to the residence. Homan called for additional officers, and personnel from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, Gordo Police Department and Carrollton Police Department responded. Later federal litigation identified participating officers including Homan, Pickens County deputies Jeremy Herd and Taylor Gregory, and officers initially identified in court records as Doss and Anderson. Later litigation also identified Pickens County Deputy Austin Moss as involved.
The circumstances of Broady’s death remained remarkably opaque for years. His sister DeQuita Broady said in December 2021 that the family still did not know why he had died. The family knew that Broady had a child-support-related warrant from Lamar County, but that warrant was not what brought police to the residence: Broady brought police there by calling 911 because he reported that someone was threatening to kill him.
After officers arrived, they learned of the child-support matter and obtained a warrant to take Broady into custody. According to allegations subsequently set out in federal court, Broady voluntarily allowed officers to handcuff him and initially remained outside rather than being immediately placed in a police vehicle. The later release of body-camera recordings became especially important because they documented portions of the encounter that had not been publicly visible when Broady died.
While already handcuffed, Broady called 911 a second time. According to the lawsuit and body-camera reporting, he asked whether police were going to hold him over the child-support issue and at another point told the dispatcher that police had not arrived, even though officers were standing nearby. When officers asked whether he had just called 911, Broady denied doing so.
What followed became the central subject of his family’s civil-rights lawsuit. The family alleges that officers tackled the handcuffed Broady face-first onto the rocky dirt road and repeatedly used Tasers against him while he was restrained on the ground. The federal court's 2024 opinion specifically recorded the estate's allegations that officers shocked Broady numerous times and also used their Tasers in direct-contact, or “dry stun,” mode while he remained handcuffed. At that stage of the litigation, the court expressly stated that it was recounting the complaint's allegations and was not making a finding that those allegations were true.
Body-camera footage reviewed much later added substantial detail. The recordings reportedly show an initially conversational interaction followed by a rapid escalation after police moved to take Broady into custody. Officers took him to the ground, multiple Taser discharges can be heard, and an officer can be heard yelling that Broady had hold of a Taser. The family's attorneys contend officers continued shocking Broady while he was prone and handcuffed.
Police and attorneys representing law-enforcement defendants dispute significant portions of that account. Pickens County's attorney has asserted that Broady gained control of a Taser and used it against officers. The family disputes that characterization and maintains that any resistance by Broady occurred while he was being subjected to force and amounted to an attempt to defend himself rather than an attack initiating the confrontation.
The later amended allegations go considerably further than the family's original complaint. After attorneys reviewed additional body-camera evidence, the estate alleged overlapping Taser deployments against Broady while he was prone and handcuffed, use of a flashlight against his neck, kicking while he was restrained, another Taser deployment after he was put into the patrol vehicle, and an officer closing the vehicle door against his head. Those allegations remain contested and have not all been established as factual findings by a court.
Officers eventually carried or dragged Broady to a patrol vehicle and transported him to the Pickens County Jail. By the time the vehicle reached the jail, Broady was no longer moving. The estate alleges that Broady was still alive but that officers did not immediately transport him to a hospital. Officers eventually performed CPR. Police then transported Broady to the helipad at the closed Carrollton hospital for a planned airlift to another medical facility. Broady died before that transfer could occur.
Broady’s death therefore began with an extraordinary reversal of roles: he was the person who summoned police because he reported being threatened, yet he was the person who ended the encounter dead in police custody.
Broady was a father. His daughter Mackenzie Hollinger recalled speaking with him only hours before his death. She said he promised his family they would get ice cream after he returned home. His relatives have described him as funny and deeply connected to his children. His sister DeQuita became one of the principal advocates seeking an explanation of his death and later served as personal representative of his estate in the federal litigation.
The family's efforts eventually produced Broady v. Herd, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in August 2023. The estate alleged excessive force, unreasonable seizure, deprivation of life without due process, failure to provide adequate medical care and related state-law claims. The original litigation named numerous officers, supervisors and municipalities. Some claims were later dismissed for procedural or limitations reasons, while litigation against individual officers continued.
The case changed substantially after body-camera evidence was examined more closely. In late 2025, Broady's estate sought permission to amend its complaint again and provide substantially more detailed allegations about which officers used force and what occurred after Broady had been restrained and placed inside the police vehicle. The family said viewing the recordings forced them to relive the circumstances of Broady's death but also supplied evidence they had not possessed when initially seeking answers.
There has now been a significant 2026 development. Reform Police Officer Kallenna Homan and Pickens County Sheriff’s Deputy Austin Moss reached settlements with Broady's estate. On 05/28/2026, U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon dismissed the claims against Homan and Moss with prejudice after the parties resolved those claims through settlement. The settlement terms were not publicly disclosed, and settlement does not constitute an admission of liability.
The lawsuit nevertheless did not end with those settlements. As of July 2026, claims against Brian/Jeremy Herd and Taylor Gregory remained pending, and the federal court scheduled mediation for 07/30/2026. Thus, nearly five years after Broady died, litigation over responsibility for the force used against him remained active.
Broady's death also became part of a broader controversy surrounding law enforcement in Pickens County. Within months, former New Orleans Saints player Glenn Foster Jr. also died after entering Pickens County law-enforcement custody. Wallace Wilder had previously been killed by Pickens County deputies during a 2019 welfare check. In 2023, Reform police Officer Dana Elmore was recorded repeatedly using a Taser against handcuffed Micah Washington, resulting in another federal civil-rights lawsuit. Civil-rights attorney Richard Rice, who has represented people in several of these cases, has publicly argued that the incidents indicate a broader local pattern rather than isolated encounters.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Jeremy Herd was already the subject of multiple federal civil-rights cases involving his work for the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office before and around the time of Broady's death. In Young v. Herd, filed 05/25/2021, Bryant Young named Herd and others as defendants in a federal §1983 civil-rights action.
In Chaney v. Herd, filed 07/26/2021—less than a month before Broady died—Patrick Chaney sued Herd and the Pickens County Sheriff’s Department. The litigation concerned Herd's use of chemical agents against jail detainees. The case ultimately reached summary judgment; the court ruled for Herd and the other defendants in February 2024. The existence of the lawsuit is therefore documented, but it did not result in a judicial finding that Herd violated Chaney's constitutional rights.
Herd was also named in litigation by Gavin Howard concerning alleged actions occurring in 2019 and August 2021. Howard alleged, among other things, that Herd issued an improper warrant, tampered with records and forced him to sign documents. A federal court later found the allegations insufficient to state a claim and also identified limitations problems with the claims. These remain allegations rather than substantiated misconduct findings.
Austin Moss, who settled the Broady claims in 2026, was separately sued by Lavarice Wilson under §1983. Wilson asserted false-arrest/imprisonment and malicious-prosecution claims. Those claims survived the federal court's initial screening, but Moss ultimately obtained summary judgment in October 2024, so that litigation likewise did not establish misconduct by Moss.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.wbrc.com/2025/12/23/michael-broady-jrs-family-pushes-accountability/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/alabama/alndce/7%3A2023cv01097/186588/59/
https://www.theaegisalliance.com/2025/12/18/michael-broadys-tragic-fatal-911-call-exposes-excessive-force-by-police-in-rural-alabama-2.html
https://www.wbrc.com/2025/12/23/michael-broady-jrs-family-pushes-accountability/
