Widow of war veteran who died after confrontation in prison asks for

Then, as the nation's attention turned to police tactics following the death of George Floyd in custody in Minneapolis, Kathleen Edwards continued to push for an independent investigation and the release of the prison video.

Death of a child deepens tragedy

However, Edwards, who spoke at a March for Justice in Cocoa in June 2020 that drew over 4,000 people, continued to struggle with her own PTSD. A week after the rally, Sheriff Ivey and several deputies came to her home at night to talk to and hug Kathleen Edwards, an incident she later said added to her mental anguish as she continued to consider filing a lawsuit against the sheriff.

“For several weeks prior to the drowning of my son, Gregory Edwards Jr. … I was suffering emotionally and psychologically from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the many traumatic events that had occurred in my life prior to the drowning,” Edwards stated in a court document.

“These events included, among others, my military service as a combat soldier in Iraq, the emotional devastation of my belief that my husband, also a combat veteran, was killed by sheriff's deputies in prison when I was nine months pregnant, and the unannounced late-night visit to my home by Sheriff Ivey,” she wrote.