When Northumberland County paramedics arrived at the detention center, Brown was not breathing and had no pulse. Much of his face was covered with bloody scrapes, apparently from grinding against the floor during the fight.
Although the autopsy report is not complete, Brown's mother alleges in a lawsuit that her son died from suffocation caused by being kept in a position where he could not breathe.
And city judges are so concerned that they removed the nine other Philadelphia youths from Northwestern Academy, which was opened in 1997 in remote Coal Township, about 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Said Joseph Rocks, a former Philadelphia state senator who runs the academy's $250 million-a-year parent company, the nonprofit Northwestern Human Services in Fort Washington: "Even if it is proven that we met all protocol . . . it doesn't matter. A kid died on our watch."
Rocks and other Northwestern officials said that on the advice of their lawyers, they would not comment on the suit. No other counties have removed their youths from the 242-bed facility.
Family Court Administrative Judge Kevin M. Dougherty, who ordered the Philadelphia juveniles taken from the center and brought back to the city, said he saw "devastating" photos of Brown's battered face.
Said Dumas: "No one deserves to be treated like that."
Brown's death is similar to scores of restraint-related suffocations that have occurred in institutions around the country in recent years. The U.S. government in 1999 put limits on the use of physical restraints in federal institutions, and Pennsylvania also implemented limits that year.
