Parents of Glenn Foster Jr. still awaiting answers in former Saints player’s death in police custody

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Five days after their son’s death in law enforcement custody, the parents of former Saints defensive lineman Glenn Foster Jr. said they still are waiting for answers from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.

No death certificate has been issued and no cause of death yet explained by the agency in connection with the 31-year-old former NFL player, whose in-custody death was reported Dec. 6 by the Pickens County (Ala.) coroner’s office.

“What did they do to my son while he was in jail?” Glenn Foster Sr. asked Saturday (Dec. 11) during a remote-access press conference with wife Sabrina Foster and family attorney Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann. “What happened to him physically?”

According to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, the younger Foster was arrested Dec. 5 on suspicion of simple assault and third-degree robbery. He reportedly died Dec. 6 at a medical facility in Northport, Ala., according to the county coroner.

Court documents say Foster attacked another inmate while trying to steal a pair of socks. What happened between the time of the attack and Foster’s death remains unknown.

“He just left for a business meeting and unfortunately was stopped by the police,” his mother said. “They did not give us the opportunity to speak with him, not at all.”

Foster’s parents declined to answer reporters’ questions regarding their son’s mental health, referring the question to Zimmermann, the associate of civil rights attorney Ben Crump. She also avoided a direct answer as to whether Foster suffered from mental health problems or was under treatment for mental illness.

“The fundamental issue, really, is that he was in the custody of law enforcement, and now he’s no longer alive,” Zimmermann said. “The family wants accountability. They do not want further spreading of allegations about what was or was not his mental health. He should be alive today.”

Alabama authorities said last week that said Foster sped away from a traffic stop, led officers on a high-speed chase, and resisted arrest before allegedly fighting with another inmate whose socks he tried to steal in jail.

“My son was a good man,” his father countered. “He wasn’t a criminal like the Sheriff’s Department is trying to say.

“We just lost our son. Our son was a pillar within the community, not just here in the New Orleans area but also in the Chicagoland area. He traveled the country generating business for the companies he owned. ... We wanted our son to be somebody, and he became somebody. It’s a tragedy his life was cut short under, I would say, suspicious circumstances.”

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