“No mother should ever have to walk into a hospital, to see her son in that condition with no explanation, no phone call. I just want Christian back,” she said. “He had the biggest heart, the biggest smile.”
Black was declared dead at a local hospital on March 26, days after he came into custody of the Montgomery County Jail. His body was maintained for organ donation and removed from life support days later.
Black was arrested by the Englewood Police Department on March 23 in connection to a stolen car report. A Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office press release said he jumped a fence and swam across a pond to flee from officers before he was treated for injuries and transported to the jail.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Black’s father, Kenya, said he was in the Dayton area that weekend to watch a basketball game with him. Christian Black loved sports, and played basketball, baseball and football in high school. He had an academic scholarship to Ohio State University and loved the Buckeyes.
While at the Montgomery County Jail, Black allegedly was involved in fights with jail staff while trying to flee his cell, and at one point began “forcefully striking his head on his cell door,” according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.
“This doesn’t sound like him at all,” his mother said. “He was kind-hearted. He wasn’t violent. He’s my gentle giant. He was my protector. What they say about my son, that’s not my son.”
While waiting to be transported to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries, Black went into “full arrest,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Black’s family is working with attorneys Michael Wright and Robert Gresham, who are investigating the 25-year-old’s death. On Tuesday, they said there had more questions than answers.
“When is this going to stop?” said Wright during Tuesday’s press conference. “We need significant change in the jail and this family has asked us to investigate the circumstances of their son’s death. We’re going to get to the bottom of what occurred.”
A Dayton Daily News analysis of state data in 2023 showed more people died after coming into custody at the Montgomery County jail that year than any other jail in Ohio. Seven Montgomery County inmate deaths were reported in 2023 from January through July, and in December 2023, a man died after being transferred from the jail to the hospital.
Last year, another inmate died in custody after taking a gun from an officer while receiving care at Kettering Health Dayton.
“It’s absolutely frustrating,” Wright said. “It’s upsetting that these families keep having to go through this, with no change.”
Black was an organ donor, and his donations, including his kidneys, helped save three lives, according to attorney Gresham.
Black’s relatives said Christian had no prior medical conditions and was a healthy, athletic 25-year-old.
His sister, Chiara, named her infant son after her big brother. She looked up to Christian and considered him her ”first best friend.”
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“He would have given anyone the shirt right off of his back,” she said. “That’s why my son is named after him.”
On Tuesday, Black’s relatives wore matching shirts that featured him grinning on the front. On the back, the shirts read: “#Justice4ChristianBlack; Montgomery County Jail tried to silence him and a million others spoke out.”
Gresham said anyone staying at the county jail deserves humane treatment.
“We have a number of concerns with this particular jail,” he said. “We have a vulnerable population in our jails. Sometimes there’s a tendency to want to say these people aren’t entitled to the same level of empathy or safety as everyone else. We want to change that.”
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