![](\"https:\/\/media2.houstonpress.com\/hou\/imager\/u\/original\/21230117\/tavores_henderson.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTavores Henderson, 26, was sentenced this week to 58 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Screenshot <\/p>\n
\nProsecutors said Officer Clint Brown pulled over Henderson for running a stop sign in the Nassau Bay community near Johnson Space Center. Henderson allegedly argued with the officer while on speakerphone with his mother. Officer Brown determined that Henderson had a warrant for a misdemeanor domestic violence charge and attempted to detain him. <\/p>\n
According to court documents, Henderson freed himself from Brown and got back in his Jeep Wrangler with a handcuff attached to one of his wrists. Sullivan, who was on patrol with Brown, allegedly attempted to climb into Henderson\u2019s vehicle, and the driver sped off. Sgt. Sullivan fell from the open passenger door and was run over, witnesses testified in court. She later died in a hospital. <\/p>\n
Rushing said the officer\u2019s death was an \u201cawful tragedy,\u201d and Henderson likely didn\u2019t know she was dead when he ditched the vehicle later. It\u2019s what happened prior to the accident that keeps Henderson’s mother Tiffany Henderson up at night, said a family friend who asked that her name not be used. <\/p>\n
Tiffany Henderson did not respond to multiple requests for an interview but testified during the punishment phase of her son\u2019s trial. She said Tavores, an aspiring rapper who had performed with Soulja Boy, suffered from schizophrenia since he was 8 years old. Diagnostic paperwork from the Harris County Jail shows that Tavores Henderson had schizoaffective disorder and “intermittent explosive disorder.”<\/p>\n
Tavores Henderson was in a mental health crisis on December 10, 2019, his family members said in court. His mother says he was released from the hospital on a psychiatric hold against her pleas to let him stay in the care of professionals. A doctor prescribed \u201cinpatient meds,\u201d according to the family friend, and a pharmacist allegedly refused to give Tiffany Henderson the medication, telling her it could not be administered at home. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Tavores] ends up getting in the car at some point, paranoid,\u201d the family friend said. \u201cThe police get behind him and he tries to flee the police. The officer tries to jump in the car and she gets run over. It\u2019s a terrible tragedy, but it\u2019s a competency issue and this could all have been prevented if he\u2019d been able to get the care he needed that day.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tiffany Henderson was charged shortly after the December 2019 accident for hiding her son in a motel room while officers were looking for him. Tavores Henderson was arrested after a two-day manhunt and has been held in the Harris County Jail since then. <\/p>\n
Rushing confirmed that to his knowledge, Henderson was released from the hospital and denied medication, because it was considered a controlled substance, on the day of the accident. The attorney added that he does not believe \u201ca thought crossed his mind\u201d that he would harm someone that day. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he left, I think he was just trying to get out of there,\u201d Rushing said. <\/p>\n
Texas Jail Project cofounder and executive director Krish Gundu said the situation of a mentally ill person being confined to incarceration rather than getting treatment isn\u2019t unique. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhose fault is this? This is not an outlier; this is not a unicorn,\u201d Gundu said in a July interview with the Houston Press, as she detailed Henderson\u2019s situation and other cases of people in mental health crises who have been jailed instead of hospitalized.\n<\/p>\n
\nHarris County has faced scrutiny for years for incarcerating individuals who advocates say would be better served through mental health treatment. As of Thursday morning, there were about 7,275 inmates at the Harris County Jail and more than 1,420 outsourced to lockups in other states. <\/p>\n
About 78 percent of the current jail population has a \u201cmental health indicator,\u201d which can signify a history of mental health problems or experiences of serious psychological distress in the 30 days prior to intake. About 26 percent of the jail population is on psychotropic medication, according to the sheriff\u2019s office dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n