Okay, now imagine she's white.....

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://abc7chicago.com/lauren-smith-fields-autopsy-cause-of-death-dating-app/11505863/

The announcement came a day after her family said they intended to sue city and police officials in Bridgeport, Connecticut, alleging they have failed to properly investigate the circumstances surrounding Smith-Fields' mysterious death in December.

Sunday also marked what would have been her 24th birthday.

According to the police report, authorities arrived at her apartment on Dec. 12 to find "a young adult Black female lying on her back, on the floor" and "did not appear to be breathing."

The report added that a man who claimed to have met Smith-Fields on a dating app was the one who called the police.

The man, who ABC News is not identifying, said he had only known Smith-Fields for three days. He said he visited her apartment for the first time the night before her death and claimed that she fell ill.

The next morning, he said he noticed the 23-year-old's nose was bleeding and that she was not breathing, so he dialed 911.

*snip*

So this guy, who supposedly was at her apartment for the first time, spent the night, and didn't call 911 till the next morning.

[HipChick]

1. Her date was an older white male...

'who seemed nice and didn’t need further investigation' according to the Police...

[MagickMuffin]

2. Why is ABC "news" withholding the identity of the man who might have killed Lauren?

That certainly is a mystery, isn't it?

Usually the news org can't wait to name names. Must be someone important!

[Nevilledog]

3. He's white apparently.

[MagickMuffin]

4. Well I guess no more inquiries are needed

Case closed.

[TheProle]

5. NBC identified him last week.

The I-Team obtained a police report of the response to a 911 call from Smith-Fields' apartment on the morning of Dec. 12, from a white male identified as Matthew LaFountain. The investigator noted he was trembling and visibly shaken.

LaFountain told investigators he and Smith-Fields met on the dating app Bumble. When they met up in person, the two began drinking shots of tequila before Smith-Fields became ill, he said, and that they later played some games, ate some food and started to watch a movie.

LaFountain told police he carried Smith-Fields to her bedroom and laid her in her bed. He then laid down next to her and fell asleep. He woke up again at approximately 6:30 a.m., finding her laying on her right side, with blood coming out of her right nostril onto the bed and not breathing, according to the police report.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/family-outraged-with-police-response-to-ct-woman-found-dead-after-dating-app-meetup/3507780/

[cyndensco]

6. An extremely upsetting aspect of this story is

the cops did not notify Lauren's family that she was dead.

For weeks, Smith-Fields’ family has criticized the department’s investigation into her death, saying that officers failed to collect key evidence and did not even notify them that she had died. According to WTNH, police said Smith-Fields died “unexpectedly” on Dec. 12, but her parents didn’t learn about her death until two days later after they drove to her home and found a note on the door.

"When I got there, there was a note on the door saying, 'If you're looking for Lauren, call this number,'" her mother Shantell Fields told CBS News.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/lauren-smith-fields-death-bridgeport-police-investigation

[Hortensis]

7. Okay, I'm imagining. Young dead women usually are white, so that's easy.

White deaths from ODs specifically also significantly outnumber black. (Whites outnumber blacks by something like 7.5 to 1, after all.)

The question doesn't seem to be whether the police were negligent but rather would they have done more if all other things were equal but she was white.

For that we'd need to check a sampling of their investigations of other young white women who'd seemed to have OD'd on initial investigation. We don't have them, of course, but there will be plenty of cases available for comparison. Death rates from drug overdoses, already dreadfully high, have been increasing enormously in recent years.

Due to the attention to this case, criminal investigation has been opened to try to make sure she did OD.

[HipChick]

8. Her mother paid out of pocket for a second autopsy, because her daughter didn't take drugs..

and not a known drug user

[LisaL]

9. Parents don't always know what their children are doing.

That's just a possibility in this particular case.

[HipChick]

11. Sounds like the Date Guy is being protected...

[cinematicdiversions]

12. Or he is completely innocent

I mean he met her for a blind date and she overdosed after he left?

Why drag him in this unless he was involved.

[HipChick]

13. If it was the other way around

and she was white...
and he was black...I doubt if he would have been excused so quickly

huge double standards

[cinematicdiversions]

14. Maybe..

Or maybe not. Being Bridgeport there is a high likelihood at least one of the investigating officers was black.

It could be race but we lean to much on that when there are much more obvious explanations.

[HipChick]

15. Lean too much? Tell that to families

grieving their loved ones...incidents are high..

[Hortensis]

10. Poor family. Well, at least her daughter's death is getting the

police attention we'd all want now. 23. Such a tragedy.