Policy

Parents Sue over Death of Man with Down Syndrome at Hands of Off-Duty Deputies

Over his refusal to leave a movie theater

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The parents of a Maryland man with Down syndrome who died in police custody are suing a sheriff's office and the owners of the movie theater where he died.

Patricia and Ronald Saylor filed the wrongful death claim Thursday in federal court in Baltimore. It stems from the January death of 26-year-old Robert Ethan Saylor of New Market.

Saylor died as three Frederick County sheriff's deputies, moonlighting as mall security guards, tried to forcibly remove him from a movie theater because he had no ticket for a second viewing of the movie, "Zero Dark Thirty."