Waiting for answers: Family of man who died in sheriff's custody has no idea what happened

Abdul Kamara had a bus to catch.

The 29-year-old San Diego County transplant was headed home to Virginia after missing too much school at the Gemological Institute of America campus in Carlsbad. He planned to re-enroll this fall to study gemstones.

But Kamara never caught his ride home. He died in sheriff’s custody March 3, the day before he was scheduled to leave for the East Coast. More than three weeks later, his family still has no explanation for what went wrong.

Kamara’s mother, Fredrika Nabbie, plans to plead for help Tuesday from the San Diego County Law Enforcement Review Board, or CLERB, which investigates in-custody deaths and misconduct complaints against the Sheriff’s and Probation departments.

“I have no clue about what happened to my son,” said Nabbie, who works as a nurse in Woodbridge, Va. “I just cannot process this.”

Homicide detectives from the San Diego Police Department took over the investigation in Kamara’s death to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest, per policy.

In a news releas e, San Diego police said Kamara died of an unknown cause after being wrapped in a restraint by sheriff’s deputies during the booking process at the Vista Detention Facility.

“The male experienced a medical emergency and went unconscious and stopped breathing,” it said.

In addition to San Diego police, the death is being investigated by CLERB and the Medical Examiner's Office. But any findings are months away from public release.

The Sheriff’s Department also is conducting an internal review of the incident.

Kamara is the fourth person to die in Sheriff’s Department custody this year. Fifty-four other people have died in county jails since 2021, one of the highest mortality rates in California, records show.

The Sheriff’s Department has a history of withholding information from family members of people who die in their custody.

Nabbie said a detective called two days after Kamara died to inform her of the death, but he offered no details about what happened. She said she has been awaiting follow-up calls or further explanation, but none has come.

“I don't know where to start, to tell you the truth,” she said in a phone interview. “This is all new to me.”

A San Diego police spokesperson said homicide detectives have been "in continuous contact" with Kamara's family.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. David LaDieu said by email that condolences go out to the family and the department is working to provide as much information as possible without compromising the investigation.

“The Sheriff's Department has a family liaison officer available to the Kamara family for any available information from our department,” LaDieu wrote.

According to San Diego police, Kamara was at a Carlsbad restaurant just after 9 p.m. on March 2, a Saturday. The caller told police that a male had requested an ambulance for an unknown reason, the news release said.

Carlsbad police responded and determined the call was “medical only.” Paramedics then transported Kamara to Scripps Encinitas. But just before 11 p.m., sheriff’s deputies received a call from the hospital saying Kamara had walked away.

“Deputies responded but were unable to locate the male at this time,” San Diego police said.

An hour later, police said, deputies responded to a “suspicious person” report along Birmingham Drive in Cardiff, approximately 1 mile from the hospital.

“The reporting party stated that a Black male was crawling around the parking lot with no shirt and no shoes,” San Diego police said. “When deputies arrived, they located the subject of the radio call, evaluated him, and placed him under arrest for being under the influence of a controlled substance.”

Deputies determined that Kamara was the same man who had left Scripps Encinitas several hours earlier but did not return him to the hospital.

Instead, he was transported to the Vista jail, where prior to being booked he “began throwing himself against the interior of the patrol car, causing injury to his face,” San Diego police said.

Deputies called paramedics to treat the injuries about 12:50 a.m. Sunday and had Kamara sit on a bench to await treatment, police said. But he “stood up and then began kicking and flailing against deputies” prompting the deputies to apply a restraint device to restrict his movement.

The deputies monitored Kamara until paramedics arrived, San Diego police said, but he stopped breathing. Despite attempted life-saving measures, Kamara was transported to an unspecified hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4 a.m.

Court records show Kamara was arrested Feb. 11 on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. He spent almost 10 days in jail before being released from custody.

By then Kamara had missed too much class at the Gemological Institute, his mother said, so he planned to return home and restart later this year. He moved to San Diego County in January after working as a certified nursing assistant in Long Beach for seven years, she said.

Nabbie said her son was born in Sierra Leone and migrated to the United States at 15, when she qualified to bring him over through a special visa program.

Kamara loved soccer and was committed to helping people, she said. He was a quiet kid with no history of drug use or mental illness, said Nabbie, who did not learn of the misdemeanor arrest until the school called to ask why Kamara had been missing classes.

She plans to address the citizens’ review board Tuesday night in the hope of learning more about what happened to her son.

“I want to know what’s going on,” Nabbie said.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune .