Police in Connecticut have opened an investigation into the death of a Black woman who was found dead last month in her Bridgeport apartment after a date with a man she had met on a dating app.
The woman, Lauren Smith-Fields, 23, was found after a man she had met on Bumble called 911 on Dec. 12 to report that he had woken up to find her unresponsive with a nosebleed.
An attorney for Smith-Fields’ family, Darnell Crosland, filed a notice of claim Friday notifying the city of his intent to sue over what he described as the police department’s “racially insensitive” handling of the case.
In his notice of claim, Crossland said Bridgeport police failed to investigate and did not recover critical evidence from the apartment, including a blood-stained bed sheet, a pill and a used condom, until two weeks after Smith-Fields’ death, at the urging of her family. Bridgeport police have not responded to multiple requests for comment about these claims.
The family also said that police told them the man she met online, who is 37 and white, was not a person of interest but did not explain why, and that the initial detective assigned to the case told them to stop calling to inquire about the status of the investigation. Her family said police never notified them of her death and that they learned about it from her landlord.
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SOURCE: NBC News, Janelle Griffith
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