Police officers pepper-sprayed and handcuffed father as his daughter lay dying because 'he shouted at EMT to help her’ – and now his son’s been barred from the army for coming to his defense

Brooke Russell, 16, shot herself in the head on March 17th and was found by her family in the park behind her house in Joplin, Missouri

They rushed her to a waiting ambulance where Brooke's body allegedly fell off the gurney in front of her shocked family

Her father, Kevin lost his temper at this and he and his son Brant were pepper sprayed

They are now facing three charges each of assault, disturbing the peace, and obstruction - which they vehemently deny

Both were handcuffed to a bench in jail for 3 1/2 hours - during which Brooke passed away



Kevin Russell was handcuffed to a police bench, his face still raw from the pepper spray as his little girl's life ebbed away and now he is facing three counts of criminal charges for the events that transpired the night his 16-year-old daughter killed herself.



On the evening of March 17th, Kevin, his wife Julissa and their son, Brant, found their daughter and sister, Brooke, lying in the park behind their Joplin, Missouri, home, having shot herself in the head.



Frantically rushing Brooke to meet an ambulance at the local police station with Julissa and his son Brant, Kevin lost his temper with an EMT when his daughter fell off the gurney and claims that police proceeded to pepper spray him and his son, arrest them and now instead of mourning they are facing three misdemeanor charges -- assault, disturbing the peace, and obstruction - of the EMT.



Devastated: Kevin Russell is struggling to deal with the grief from his daughter (right) Brooke's suicide let alone the criminal charges stemming from the night she died

Tragedy: Brant Russell (left) dad, Kevin, mom, Julissa and Brooke- in a family picture taken before Brooke's suicide on March 17th, 2013

Family: Brooke (left), Kevin, Brant and Julissa pose for a family picture before the tragic death of Brooke earlier this year

'To me time was everything, I was going 'let's go, get her to the hospital, hurry up, hurry up,' Kevin remembers saying to the EMT after being instructed by emergency services to meet the ambulance at the station instead of going straight to the hospital.



Feeling he has been left with no choice but to go to the media after failing to get the police to drop the charges through legal means, Kevin told KSPR that everything spiraled out of control when he and his panicked son met the people they hoped would save Brooke's life.

Kevin says that as the EMT turned to ask what Brooke's condition was, he turned away for a moment and his daughter slipped off the gurney.



Losing his cool at the time, Kevin told KSPR, 'I started screaming and said 'do your f*****g job, get her to the hospital,' and the EMT put his finger in my face and said 'calm down sir.' I was screaming 'please get her to the hospital.'



'And right about that time a police officer ran up on the sidewalk and I saw Brant go down.'



His son Brant - who is enrolled in the military and has had his deployment postponed because of the charges - had been pepper sprayed.

Harrowing: Brooke went for a run on the evening she died and was found in the public park at the back of the Russell's house

Mother: Brooke's mother Julissa says she wasn't allowed to travel with her daughter in the ambulance after her husband and son were arrested following an incident at the ambulance on the night of her girls suicide

Handcuffed: This is the holding room where Kevin and Brant Russell were held in cuffs attached to the bench while Brooke passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound

Memories: These are the photographs that adorn a mirror in Brooke's room at her home in Joplin, Missouri

'I was on the pavement, I couldn't breathe and another officer put a knee in my back and told me to get up and he said if I didn't get up he was going to tase me,' Brant said to KSPR .

Suddenly, Kevin found himself sprayed too and arrested. They were both taken into the police station and handcuffed to a bench.



Three and a half hours later, they were released and discovered to their horror that Brooke had died.



'I had been thinking they're going to save her, everything always works out, she's going to be okay,' said Kevin to KSPR.



According to Kevin's sister, Julissa was also pushed away from the ambulance as her daughter was rushed to the hospital - unable to ride along with her critically injured girl.

In a posting on social media website reddit to raise awareness of his case, Kevin Russell describes in detail as he remembers it some of the events of that night.



As they arrived at the police station with Brooke, Kevin says, 'We put her on the gurney that was halfway out of the ambulance, and I screamed that my daughter had shot herself, and we needed to get her to the hospital.'

Misery: Kevin Russell stares at pictures of Brooke - over six months on from her tragic death

'At this point, I backed away because I thought they would put her in the ambulance and drive away. But they didn’t. The paramedics turned to me to ask what happened. I then saw Brooke fall on her back on the pavement and I screamed at them.'



Kevin then describes what happened to him and his son, Brant: 'There were a lot of police officers around us. One of the officers was on my right.



'I then heard a policeman to the right of my son tell him to calm down, but my son was doing nothing except standing next to me and crying.



'I then saw my son go down because he was pepper-sprayed. I heard someone tell me to calm down or they would pepper-spray me, and then I saw the spray shoot out. I turned my head to the left and felt it land against the back of my head.



'The fumes made it hard to breath. I turned around, still screaming to get my daughter to the hospital, and then another stream of pepper spray hit me right in the eyes.'



Describing what happened when he and his son were taken to the station, Kevin identifies one officer as kindly.

'An older police officer took me back to the shower and told me to strip to wash off all of the pepper spray. He was the only officer who looked sad for what had happened.'

The teenager was described by her family as happy and normal and they thought her moodiness was down to her teenage years



Found: This is the park behind the Russell's Joplin, Missouri home where they found Brooke's seriously injured body on March 17th

And then tragically, after he was released, charged along with his son for assault, disturbing the peace, and obstruction - obstruction of an EMT officer - Kevin described the scene at the hospital.



'I ran down the hall to the door. I opened the door to the small consultation room,' writes Kevin Russell.



'There was a police chaplain, a very nice woman from the hospital, my mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law. I looked at Julissa and cried. 'Is she alive?' I said, and she shook her head no. I ran to her and started screaming.'



However, Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts told KSPR , that despite Kevin Russell's complaints, he does not have the option of going public with his officers side of the story.



'What I'll tell you is that the conduct that's alleged is directly contradictory to our values, our mission statement, our code of ethics,' the chief explained.



'Those are not the things we engage in.'



Described by her family as 'funny' and 'sweet', Kevin Russell says that even though she was moody, he attributed this to his daughter being a teenager.



Ten days before she died, she ran away and it was on Saturday, March 17th, when she did not return home from a run that Julissa went looking for her.



'I got a call from my wife and she was screaming, I couldn't even understand her,' Kevin said.



'I knew something was wrong, I never heard her scream like that, and I said 'Julissa please slow down,' and I heard 'gun,' I heard 'blood.'

Painful: The Russell family agonized over whether to release part of their daughter's suicide note

When Kevin and Brant arrived at the scene they thought that Brooke might have survive.



'I remember saying, 'Oh my God.' I threw my phone down while I was on with 911 and I ran to her. I checked for a pulse but didn't feel a pulse and there was just a little mark, I really couldn't tell, the back of her head,' said Kevin to KSPR of the wound.



'And I looked into her eyes and her eyes were halfway open like she was sleeping with her eyes open.'



Kevin claims the police will not drop the charges and want him to take anger management, but all that he can still think of his the final paragraph of the suicide note his daughter left him.

