When he responded last September to the scene of a house fire and shot a lighter-wielding man experiencing psychosis, Edmond Police Department Sgt. Nathan Fountain was already under internal investigation for shoving a handcuffed woman to the ground and breaking her leg in the Oklahoma County Jail. The woman also had been exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis, and other EPD officers had been told she needed access to her medication.
Although Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna presented Fountain’s shooting of Edmond resident Ross Norwood to a grand jury — which declined to indict the career officer — Behenna’s communications director said “it does not appear” EPD ever reported Fountain’s June 2024 actions at the jail or Brittany Gordon’s broken leg.
Instead, in a January letter from EPD’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Maj. Damon Minter informed only Gordon that Fountain’s actions had been investigated and addressed internally.
“A review of your formal complaint regarding the conduct of an Edmond Police Department employee is complete. The finding of this review has been addressed within the Edmond Police Department,” Minter wrote Jan. 6. “Thank you for bringing to my attention what you believed to be misconduct.”
EPD has denied NonDoc’s requests for information about complaints against Fountain and any disciplinary actions he has faced, but the timeline of Norwood’s shooting (September 2024) and Minter’s letter (January 2025) indicates Fountain was not placed on leave while Minter investigated Gordon’s complaint (June 2024).
This June, Gordon named Fountain, the City of Edmond, Turn Key Health and multiple county officials as defendants in a federal lawsuit alleging civil rights violations while she was in custody one year earlier.
Filed pro se June 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the complaint alleges “objectively unreasonable” use of force by Fountain, system inaction by EPD “condoning unjustified use of force,” and an ongoing failure “to fix the persistent problems” at the Oklahoma County Jail.
“Prior to the incident involving Ms. Gordon, Edmond had knowledge of several previous incidents involving members of the Edmond Police Department, including defendant Fountain, wherein officers used excessive force on others,” states Gordon’s complaint (embedded below). “Edmond took no action to discipline defendant Fountain, or other officers, or to order them not to repeat such incidents, thus tacitly authorizing such conduct. If Edmond had taken such remedial action, the abusive conduct towards of Ms. Gordon would not have occurred.”
Body camera footage shows shove, aftermath
The Edmond Police Department had arrested Brittany Gordon after she lost consciousness June 20, 2024, and crashed her car near the intersection of Covell Road and Kelly Avenue while driving with her daughter. Her parents, Kim and Darryl Gordon, checked their daughter’s phone location and arrived at the scene.
Darryl Gordon told officers his daughter needed access to medication as part of her treatment for a mental health condition. Kim Gordon said Brittany had called her that morning in a panicked state just moments before the wreck.
“She said, ‘Mom, remember when I had the epidural and the pain in my back when I had (my daughter)?’ She’s just talking fast and very anxious, and she said, ‘I’m having this pain and it’s going to my leg, and I just don’t know what to do,'” Kim Gordon recalled. “And she goes, ‘I don’t know, I just feel like I’m going to pass out, I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack, everything’s turning white.'”
As EPD worked the scene, an officer performed a field sobriety test on Brittany Gordon, determined she had failed it and arrested her on suspicion of driving under the influence. Gordon was initially transported to the Edmond City Jail, then to OU Health’s Edmond Medical Center for urinalysis and blood tests, back to the Edmond facility and finally to the Oklahoma County Jail.
Darryl Gordon said he attempted to make arrangements to bring his daughter medication while she was in custody in Edmond, but he said he was unable to do so before Fountain began transporting her to the Oklahoma County Jail.
“As her family, we know she’ll have kind of like a rage — kind of a fit. It’s like a bull that’s trapped in a room. This has never happened in public. It’s never happened at work, but we’ve seen it a dozen times,” Darryl Gordon said. “When she’s trapped in a corner, she feels threatened and she can get very mouthy. (…) She’s never been arrested. Outside of traffic violations, there’s never been any problem with the police or the state in any way, shape or form.”
Prior to the publication of this article, the City of Edmond did not respond to NonDoc’s request for body camera footage showing Gordon’s arrest and transport. The footage was released to the Gordon family, however, which provided it to NonDoc.
As seen in a compilation of body camera footage embedded above, Fountain was not involved in Gordon’s arrest, but he was assigned to transport her to the county jail. It is unclear if Fountain was aware of Gordon’s mental health background, the nature of her arrest or the fact her family had been unable to get medication to her for hours.
Fountain’s full body camera footage shows Gordon entering the police cruiser initially without incident, but later growing frustrated at being handcuffed for the duration of the ride. She requested that Fountain remove her bindings, to which Fountain replied it would be against policy. When Gordon countered that she would not tell anyone, Fountain said, “There are cameras going all the time.” Much of the ride thereafter was silent, but Gordon eventually requested to be uncuffed again and called Fountain a “dick” for not answering her questions.
“You’re under arrest, you’re in handcuffs, that’s as plain and simple as it gets,” Fountain said.
Gordon then cursed at Fountain.
“You’re being a dick, man,” she said. “I’m sorry, but fuck you.”
Fountain replied, “Oh, good for you.”
“Like, wow,” Brittany Gordon added.
Fountain responded: “Like, wow, I don’t know what you don’t get.”
The exchange ended with Fountain laughing at Gordon’s comments, and she became more worked up as the cruiser entered the county jail premises, reiterating that she “did not break the law” and asking, “Who’s going to get me out of here?”
When the pair entered the county jail, Fountain asked Gordon to stand against the wall while she was processed, during which time she continued to berate surrounding officers. As Fountain handled a file, Gordon complained to a jailer that she was in pain from “a four-car pile up.” Fountained responded, “Hmmm,” which irritated Gordon further.
“Hmmm? Fuck you, dude, you son of a bitch,” she said, starting to walk past Fountain.
Fountain struck Gordon’s chest and right shoulder with enough force to knock her down while commanding her to “get back over there.” A “pop” can be heard as Gordon falls, and she immediately begins to scream in pain.
The lawsuit alleges Gordon was asked to move in that direction by a jail staff member. A female jailer is seen in body camera footage standing in front of Brittany Gordon moments before she begins walking, although whether she gave a verbal or physical command is unclear.
“That guy just pushed me,” Brittany Gordon told jail staff as they asked her to turn around and be searched. She continued to shout in pain and can be seen limping in the footage.
Fountain denied pushing Gordon.
“No, ma’am, you fell,” Fountain replied.
Throughout the booking process, some jail staff members and other law enforcement officers can be seen smirking or laughing. After Gordon sustained the injury, one jailer asked another to see if they could find a wheelchair “because she’s going to be whining.” Fountain later told another jail staff member he had “put my hand out and she fell to the ground.” He said that Gordon had acted like, “I’m Ms. Princess, why am I in handcuffs?”
According to the footage, Gordon continued to limp through the remainder of the booking process, with Fountain turning around his body camera to show her visibly swelling ankle at one point. As he prepared to leave the facility, Fountain made a phone call to a supervisor and informed them of the incident.
Gordon’s lawsuit argues the 14th Amendment “governs excessive force claims arising from ‘treatment of an arrestee detained without a warrant’ and ‘prior to any probable cause hearing.'” With Gordon handcuffed inside the jail and flanked by multiple law enforcement officers, her lawsuit says Fountain’s shove constituted an excessive use of force.
“When [Gordon] was viciously shoved by [Fountain], she was secured inside the Oklahoma County Detention Center and had no means of eluding police and escaping arrest nor was she resisting arrest at the time she was shoved,” Gordon’s petition states. “[Fountain]’s excessive use of force was objectively unreasonable under a totality of circumstances.”
The lawsuit also accuses Oklahoma County’s Board of Commissioners, its jail trust and Turn Key Health of permitting “unconstitutional customs and practices with regard to persons detained at the Oklahoma County Detention Center with serious medical needs.” According to the lawsuit, after Gordon broke her fibula following Fountain’s push, she was placed in a cell without treatment for the injury and only received surgery June 22, two days after sustaining the break. Other detainees attempted to request treatment for her fractured leg to no avail, her family said.
City of Edmond spokesman Bill Begley said city officials had no comment on the lawsuit because litigation is ongoing.
‘It’s been a year’: Criminal case lingers, frustrates family
Gordon, the lone plaintiff in the civil lawsuit, declined to comment for this story, but her parents agreed to interviews about what happened to their daughter and her lingering criminal case stemming from the car accident.
Both Gordons acknowledged what the body camera captured: their daughter had been “mouthing off” to Fountain as he drove her from Edmond to Oklahoma City. But they also said the stress of the situation — being separated from her medication and her young daughter — caused her to lash out verbally at Fountain and other officers.
Behenna, Oklahoma County’s district attorney, charged Gordon with child endangerment and driving under the influence. In a June 21 probable cause affidavit used to file charges July 2, EPD Officer Julian Manzo wrote that he “observed multiple clues of intoxication” during a field sobriety test. However, he made no reference to the results of Gordon’s urinalysis, which Darryl Gordon said found no presence of alcohol, amphetamine or opiate.
“While at the hospital, the defendant stated that she was prescribed different medications and some of the labels do have warning labels that state they cause drowsiness and caution operating a motor vehicle,” Manzo wrote. “The defendant also stated that she was afraid that some of the prescription medication would show in her system as amphetamines in the blood test. I asked the defendant if she had taken any other drugs which she said that she consumed marijuana three days ago but nothing else.”
NonDoc reviewed Gordon’s blood test results processed in October, which detected only prescription and over-the-counter medications, none of which classified as an amphetamine.
Despite being charged more than a year ago, Gordon has yet to receive a preliminary hearing. One had been scheduled for July, but it was delayed until Monday, Sept. 15.
“It’s been a year, and every time we go to court for that [nothing happens]. It’s been a year,” Kim Gordon said. “There’s no offers of pleas, no nothing. I mean, nothing.”
When EPD officers responded to the scene of her accident, Brittany Gordon’s initial interactions captured by body camera footage were cordial, as she answered questions and provided documentation for her vehicle. As the situation unfolded, and especially after it became clear officers would not allow her to leave the scene in an ambulance with her daughter, Gordon became increasingly irate and argumentative with law enforcement, shouting that the officers were “assholes” and “motherfuckers.” Fountain was not among the officers present at the accident.
In his report, Manzo wrote that he “observed [Brittany Gordon] to have red, blood-shot eyes and dilated pupils.”
“She appeared to be having a difficult time focusing on speaking to me,” Manzo wrote. “While writing her information down and asking her what happened, she was erratic in her movements and appeared uncontrolled.”
Brittany Gordon told Manzo she had not consumed alcohol or drugs that day, but she said she had been up since around 1:30 a.m. and had only slept about an hour — between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. — before taking her daughter to an appointment. Gordon also shared that she sometimes uses medical marijuana as a sleep aid, but she said she had last done so several days prior. Officers asked Brittany Gordon to complete a field sobriety test, and in his report, Manzo said her performance added to his concern she could be under the influence.
Darryl Gordon, however, said he knew his daughter would be unable to conduct the test properly owing to her medication’s effects.
“[An Edmond police officer] pulls me over to make sure I’m not going to do something stupid, and I said, ‘She can’t pass this test.’ He goes, ‘What do you mean? Is she diagnosed with something?'” Darryl Gordon said. “I said, ‘Yeah, she’s [diagnosed] and she takes medication, and she sometimes has tardive dyskinesia symptoms, and you’re not physically right when you’re doing all that stuff.”
Kim Gordon, recognizing the state her daughter was entering as she grew increasingly hostile, asked arresting officers to “use your [Crisis Intervention Training].” After being placed in the EPD cruiser, Brittany Gordon repeatedly said, “I’m innocent,” and that she wanted “her baby,” according to body camera footage.
“When she gets put into such a stressful situation like that — which is rare, but it’s happened with me — she will lash out,” Kim Gordon said. “It’s almost like she gets in a blackout. (…) They’re keeping her daughter away and she’s starting to get to that point, and you can start seeing it [in the footage].”
After being taken to the hospital for tests to investigate whether she was intoxicated, Brittany Gordon apologized to Manzo for her behavior. The officer replied that he “didn’t take it personally.” Body camera footage shows Gordon in a calmer, more cooperative state while at the hospital. She was released from her handcuffs during that time. Darryl Gordon said the test results were returned “almost immediately” and showed no intoxicants aside from her prescription medications and traces of marijuana, for which she had a prescription.
Nonetheless, Darryl Gordon said he then was informed his daughter had been taken from the hospital to the Edmond City Jail pending transport to the Oklahoma County Jail.
“She calls about me at about 6:30 (p.m.) from the Edmond jail, and she’s under the impression that I’m fixing to come pick her up. I told her — and these are all recorded, too, so you can hear the word-for-word (conversation) on all this if you want to — but basically just that (…) she’s going to the county jail,” Darryl Gordon said. “(I said,) ‘I talked to these guys, and they’re not letting you go. I’ll be up there first thing in the morning and post bail and get you out of there, but you need to start getting your mind synced up that this is what’s going to happen.'”
EPD declines to say whether Fountain investigated for shove
About 10 weeks after EPD Sgt. Nathan Fountain shoved Brittany Gordon to the floor of the Oklahoma County Jail, he again used force against someone experiencing distress. But that time, when Fountain encountered Ross Norwood and his burning house Sept. 3, his body camera had not been activated until after he shot the unwell Edmond resident in the chest.
For at least two weeks before Norwood ripped carpet out of his house and set it ablaze on his porch, neighbors raised repeated red flags about his mental health, calling 911 to request multiple welfare checks and some sort of intervention. Two residents were so concerned that they contacted an elected official. Edmond police, including multiple officers who responded to the Sept. 3 arson call, knew Norwood by name and knew of his mental health challenges. When Norwood attempted to break into someone’s home days before being shot by Fountain, neighbors hoped it would give EPD cause to take him into custody and connect him with the help he needed.
Reason for Ardmore termination unclear
Prior to Sgt. Nathan Fountain’s two-decade career in Edmond, he briefly worked as a probationary officer in Ardmore, meaning he was not a full department employee. He and another officer were terminated by the city in 1998, spawning a wrongful termination lawsuit in which Ardmore’s Fraternal Order of Police chapter represented Fountain and his colleague. It is unclear what led to their terminations, but newspaper archives indicate the City of Ardmore was facing budgetary issues and considering cost-saving measures.
Fountain told a supervisor after the shooting that he thought the lighters Norwood was wielding were knives based on information provided by a 911 caller. Fountain was cleared of misconduct in that incident by Behenna, who presented “15 evidentiary exhibits” and testimony from one detective to a grand jury for review. Norwood survived and was charged with first-degree arson and assault, as well as a subsequent stalking charge. Following a review of his mental health, Norwood was deemed incompetent to stand trial in December, but he has remained in the Oklahoma County Jail for the last eight months — a situation underscoring the long delays in providing competency restoration services that spurred a class-action lawsuit and an Oklahoma consent decree.
While the DA reviewed Fountain’s shooting of Norwood in October, the June incident where Fountain shoved Gordon and broke her leg was not brought to Behenna’s office, according to spokeswoman Brooke Arbeitman.
“If the broken leg was investigated by law enforcement, it does not appear the case was presented to us for charging,” Arbeitman said. “At least, that is how it appears in our case management system.”
Why Brittany Gordon’s complaint against Fountain was not forwarded to Behenna’s office remains unclear.
Asked about complaints filed against Fountain, Edmond Police Department public information specialist Emily Ward said citizens’ complaints become part of an officer’s personnel record and thus not are subject to public disclosure under Oklahoma’s Open Records Act.
Ward also declined to say whether any investigation into Fountain’s interaction with Gordon even occurred, citing the personnel records exemption listed under Title 51, Section 24A.7 of state statute.
Darryl Gordon, however, provided NonDoc with a copy of the Jan. 6 letter from EPD’s Minter that thanked his daughter “for bringing to my attention what you believed to be misconduct.” Darryl Gordon said he “was disappointed but not surprised” by the letter’s lack of information.
“In my opinion, if Maj. Damon Minter doesn’t see a problem with the (…) behavior of officers and jailers, we need a new person leading the EPD internal investigations,” Gordon said by email.
Edmond Police Department policy No. 04-01 about arrests outlines general expectations, including that officers treat arrestees “in a just, humane and civilized manner” and that they “shall not mistreat persons in the custody of the Edmond Police Department.”
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Gordon’s lawsuit has lingered for two months in federal court without responses from its defendants because a magistrate judge set an October deadline for her to submit a special report about other potential litigation of her claims, a procedural directive ordered because she filed the petition herself without an attorney. (Thomas Stone has since entered an appearance on Gordon’s behalf.)
As the City of Edmond, Oklahoma County officials and Turn Key Health ponder their potential replies, Brittany Gordon’s arrest and injury further highlight issues that arise when police officers struggle to recognize and remain calm when someone’s behavior is linked to mental health issues.
Under President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into how Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County and the state of Oklahoma treat those experiencing mental health issues when they are encountered by law enforcement. Released in January, the 45-page DOJ report found that OKCPD engages “in a pattern or practice of conduct that discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities when providing emergency response services” in violation of federal law. The DOJ report did not specifically mention Edmond, but it did criticize Oklahoma County has a whole. However, the DOJ under President Donald Trump’s administration dismissed the investigation in May.
The Oklahoma County Jail ‘doesn’t have a great reputation’
When Kim Gordon learned her daughter would be held overnight at the Oklahoma County Jail, she worried because of the facility’s longstanding issues. Still, she hoped the anticipated brevity of her daughter’s stay would limit potential problems.
“It doesn’t have a great reputation,” Kim Gordon said, “but most of the people can get in and out of there unscathed.”
A criminal defense attorney, Oklahoma County Commissioner Jason Lowe was elected to represent District 1 in April. During his candidacy, Lowe routinely cited the jail and its problems as a prime motivation for seeking the office. Since the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority — known as the jail trust — took over operations of the facility, dozens of people have died there. Lowe said the jail is not a place for people who are in the throes of a mental health crisis.
“I can’t speak specifically on that particular case,” Lowe said of the lawsuit filed by Brittany Gordon. “But yes, absolutely, I believe incarceration needs to be the last option. I’m a big believer in rehabilitation over incarceration. And if someone is in a mental health crisis, the first option should not be to send them to jail to be incarcerated. It should be to send them to a facility that can give them the help they need and deserve.”
By officials’ own admission, the jail is ill-equipped to handle detainees experiencing mental health issues. Last year, then-jail CEO Brandi Garner removed a therapist affiliated with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services because she said the provider assigned to the jail lacked the necessary training to work with incarcerated people.
While a new Oklahoma County Jail remains on the horizon, the county faces a massive $400 million funding chasm with few ways to pay for it. Still, the county is moving forward with building a behavioral health center that would be able to house up to 60 people on the same property as the new jail. In theory, Gordon might have been offered an option to book into the behavioral health center instead of the jail had it been open at the time of her arrest. The new behavioral health center is expected to be completed by the end of next year at a price tag of about $40 million, with the bulk of the funding coming from the pandemic-era ARPA program.
Following her injury at the current jail, Gordon elected to take action via the legal system, and she is not alone. Oklahoma County and the jail trust have been the subjects of numerous lawsuits filed in federal court by the estates of deceased detainees and others who have been injured at the facility. Those include, but are not limited to:
- The estate of Kyle Shaw filed a lawsuit in 2023 following his death at the facility in 2021. Shaw’s death was the result of fentanyl ingestion;
- In April, the family of Dina Latrell Kirven filed a lawsuit against the jail trust stemming from Kirven’s 2023 death at the facility;
- In July 2024, the family of Corey McMichael filed a lawsuit against the jail trust over McMichael’s 2022 death at the facility. McMichael died in jail after experiencing heart issues; and
- In May 2024, the family of Eddie Garcia filed a lawsuit stemming from his death inside the jail.
All told, since the jail trust took over operations five years ago, there have been 59 reported deaths at the jail.
Read the lawsuit filed by Brittany Gordon
Read the probable cause affidavit
Read EPD’s Jan. 6 letter
