INDIANAPOLIS — Rita Abram never saw her son Henry Orlando Bryant in a boxing match.
“He liked boxing, big-time boxer,” said Abram, formerly of Anderson. “He was a Golden Glove. He boxed in high school and got a Golden Glove. I confess I never did get to see him box because I didn’t want to see anybody hitting my son in the head.”
Bryant, 35, died March 28 after an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer used a stun gun on him.
Neither the police department nor the city of Indianapolis has contacted Abram about her son’s death. Now, the mother of two has a pending lawsuit against the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. She says she wants justice for her son’s death and security for her 5-year-old granddaughter.
STOPPING TO WRITE POETRY
On March 28, Bryant and his best friend, Scott Broadnax, stopped at O’Charley’s restaurant, 5130 W. 38th St.
“(Bryant) went to a job fair that day, then met up with Scott at a restaurant, then they went to a Pacers game,” Abram said as she recounted the story she was told by Broadnax. “Because of (Bryant) being a writer, he kept his laptop with him, and as poems would come to him, he would stop. He had a thing in his car and plug it up.”
After the Pacers game, Broadnax and Bryant were on their way to help fix a friend’s tire at O’Charley’s. Bryant went to a booth to write a poem.
“His love for writing is what stopped him there,” Abram said.
At 10:18 p.m. that Friday, Indianapolis officer Arthur Sibley responded to reports of an argument involving a gun at O’Charley’s, according to a police report.
The man holding the gun was identified as Broadnax, the report said, adding that Broadnax had a valid gun permit.
While Sibley was securing the weapon, the report said, he noticed another officer, Charles Martin, in a confrontation with Bryant.
“Mr. Bryant was very combative and violent and it required several officers to secure him, remove him from the business and effect his arrest,” the report said.
“Officer Martin utilized his TASER with little effect. Officer Sibley sprayed Mr. Bryant one short burst of CS (a type of tear gas) near the forehead area. This also appeared to have little effect on him as Mr. Bryant continued to struggle and wrestle for sometime.” the report continued.
Once officers got Bryant to the ground, they searched him.
“Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bryant became unresponsive and an ambulance was called,” according to the report.
Bryant was pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital. The cause of his death is still unknown.
Abram’s lawyer, Jason Reese of Carmel, said that several facts in the police report are inaccurate.
“We have three witnesses that will say, No. 1, that Orlando was not being combative. No. 2, that he was not being argumentative. No. 3, that he did not flee or initiate any physical contact with any of the police officers,” Reese said.
“He was sitting down in a booth in the restaurant and that all three will also say that he never struck a police officer. He was essentially bumrushed and tackled by officer Charles Martin, was taken to the ground and Tased multiple times, and that he never regained consciousness.”
No spokespersons from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department returned phone calls to The Herald Bulletin.
However, Lt. Jeff Duhamell, of the department, has said the death is under investigation as authorities await a final autopsy report.
Early Saturday morning, a police officer called Bryant’s father, also named Henry, in Muncie. He then called Abram.
“I was in bed,” she recalled. “I was just ... it was just unbelievable. I was saying, ‘This is not true, this is not true. I can’t believe. This is not true. This can’t be. This is not true. It can’t be,” Abram said.
At about 5 a.m., Abram, with some friends and family whom she called, were on their way to the hospital when the news came on.
“They didn’t mention his name at that time,” she said, trying to hold back her tears. “They didn’t know who he was when that happened. We went to the hospital, but by then, they had already taken him. The coroner had already taken him.”
Bryant was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in the Valor of Honor section.
Abram said, “Some people say funerals, I say home-goings because I know he’s home with the Lord.”
SOME CALLED HIM ‘LANDO’
In 1980, Abram was working for Guide Corp. when she and her children — including 8 year-old Henry — moved to Anderson.
“He liked sports,” Abram said. “He loved playing chess. He loved boxing. He got a jacket that he won, a little bitty jacket that he got that I found in his clothes.”
After graduation from Madison Heights High School in 1990, Bryant joined the Marine Corps, where he trained as a cook.
“When he was in 11th grade, I signed the papers for him,” Abram said. “He was adamant about going into the Marines right after high school. I think his mind-set was always, ‘Go for the best, what’s going to benefit him in the future.’ He was thinking about college. He was thinking college was going to be paid for. He was pretty smart, he was wise.”
Bryant never saw combat but the Marines sparked a passion for travel.
After four years, Bryant moved to Muncie where his stepfather got him a job at New Venture Gear. He started classes at Ball State University and joined the National Guard.
New Venture Gear got Bryant into General Motors, where he worked for several years.
“He had a opportunity to transfer out of this area,” Abram said. “In the meantime, he got married, got divorced; he just felt like he just needed to get away, so that’s why he transferred to Kansas City, Kansas.”
Bryant left his family, including daughter Sa’Niya. In Kansas City, Bryant got his associate’s degree from Kansas Community College.
He transferred to Arlington, Texas, and earned a minister’s license. His mother also is a minister. She was a volunteer chaplain at the Madison County and Pendleton correctional facilities.
“He was doing real well,” Abram said. “I was proud of him. I talked about him all the time, how proud I was of him.”
After one more transfer to Louisiana, Bryant took a buyout from General Motors. He moved back to Indiana to be closer to his daughter who was then 3 years old.
Louisiana had changed Bryant, Abram said.
“He met some friends, and he kind of strayed away from the church a little bit,” Abram said. “He had some personal things to deal with and he kind of turned to alcohol.”
The night of March 28 was not the first time Bryant had encountered police.
In 2006, he was arrested in Muncie on suspicion of drinking, driving and speeding. The case has been dismissed because of Bryant’s death.
In 1998, Bryant was found guilty of public intoxication and disorderly conduct in Howard County. In 1996, he also pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and public indecency. Bryant was placed on probation.
“I’d always talk to him, and I told him that’s not the way to go,” Abram said. “You gotta get back on track.”
Bryant was starting to turn his life around, Abram said.
“The last few months in his life, there was some changes in his life,” she said. “He was getting back into the word and doing a lot of praying and doing his poetry.”
When Bryant moved back to Indiana in 2005, he started coaching boxing at a community center, working odd jobs to pay the bills.
“He got into helping the youth. He was at Washington Community Center working with the youth there and boxing. He was coaching; he ended up getting his coaching license,” Abram said.
Bryant was supposed to be at a boxing match with one of his students the day after he died.
WALK FOR LOVE
A handful of people marched around the City-County Building in Indianapolis on a sunny afternoon last Tuesday. Hundreds of passers-by stared at their fluorescent-colored signs stating “Love,” “Unity” and “Truth.”
Gwen “Summer Snow” Peters, along with the rest of Unity Being United, stopped to talk to people brave enough to inquire as to the group’s mission.
“The city should have told Rita, they should have sent their condolences,” Peters said. “There should be something. There should be that compassion, even if there might be a lawsuit.”
Unity Being United, based out of Anderson, conducts “Love Walks” throughout the state. The first was in Elwood two years ago.
“We’re out there for love to try to bring unity for the community,” Peters, one of the leaders of the group, explained.
Their mission includes teaching and nurturing for compassionate leaders for the future, said Jerry Jacobs, who provides public relations for the group.
Since Bryant’s death, Unity Being United has marched around the City-County Building every Tuesday.
“We’re about promoting the love of the fellow man,” Jacobs said. “The walks we’ve done are about that. Until we’re back to that, we’ll continue to have strife.”
Karen Johnson, another member of UBU, said the group was searching for more inclusive police department policies that take the community into account.
“We need swifter acknowledgment when something has gone wrong,” she said. “A simple apology goes a long way. Our judicial system wants this. We’re doing this the most peaceful way we know right now. We expect apprehensiveness. This is just our way of showing godly love to our sister Rita.”
Abram has not joined the Love Walks.
“I never joined them because this is something Gwen, my friend, wanted to do,” she said. “I’m a minister myself, and this is something they’re doing.”
SEEKING JUSTICE
“What I’m looking for is justice for my son. That’s the most important thing to me,” Abram said. “The three witnesses said the same thing, that when they Tasered him, he called out to Jesus. He called out to his Lord and savior, and so that gave me peace in my spirit.
“That’s the most important part to me, that I know where my son is, but now I want justice.”
Abram hired Reese to investigate her son’s death. They are exploring a lawsuit against the police department. If successful, Abram will not receive any money. She is acting on behalf of the estate which belongs to 5-year-old Sa’Niya. The girl lives with her mother.
“I want for her future to be secured because he cared so much about her, he cared for her so much, that was his only child,” Abram said. “I want her to not to have to want for anything.”
In her home on Indianapolis’ east side, Abram said she intended to seek a publisher for her son’s writings.
“He wrote a poem called ‘The Soldier’ where he was struggling with his flesh, struggling with sin. Toward the end of the poem, it said, ‘That’s it. I’m a soldier for the Lord, and all I got to do is holler Jesus when I need him.’ And that’s how he ended the poem, and that’s what he did, he hollered Jesus.”
Abram said she also wanted to set up a scholarship program in her son’s name for young men who like to box.
“I tell you how he touched some of his young men that he coached,” she said. “There was a young man (at the funeral), I call him Junior. My son was supposed to coach him that Saturday, and he won. He won a medal, and he gave the medal to my husband and myself.”
Abram picked up an old picture Bible, and starting flipping through the pages.
“I gave it to him on Dec. 23, 1981. He was 9 years old.”
She read the note she wrote her son when she gave it to him.
“From your mommy, love Rita, and I wanted to give it to his daughter. I remember reading it to him, and he’d ask questions. She’s very smart for her age, and she’ll love it.”
If you were at the O’Charley’s restaurant, at 5130 W. 38th St., Indianapolis, on March 28, and you have any information about the incident, contact Jason Reese, attorney for Rita Abram, at www.injuryattorneys.com.
