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Case of man killed by police has haunting similarities to Glenn Foster Jr's death

Pickens county Sheriff Todd Hall says he has no comments in regard to any of these deaths.

NEW ORLEANS — Glenn Foster Jr, a former player for the New Orleans Saints and a local business owner, died in a rural Alabama County jail earlier this month.

Foster was known to have some mental issues and police say they arrested him after a chase in Pickens County. Within two days, Foster would be dead inside the jail and details about what happened to the one-time Saints player would be hard to come by.

This is a similar story, one that involves the same sheriff, in the same county, about a man with a mental illness who wound up dead.

The video shows Pickens County Deputies along with Gordo Police shooting and killing a man named Wallace Wilder in 2019. They were called to his small home for a welfare check when neighbors say they heard some commotion.

The call ended with Wilder’s death.

According to a police report, Wilder didn’t want to let officers in.

After some back and forth, officers kicked his door in and say Wilder was standing there with a knife.

Attorney Richard Rice of the Rice Law Firm says you can see Pickens County Sheriff Todd Hall in the video. Hall is the same sheriff who currently runs the jail where Glenn Foster Jr died.

“You can see or hear Mr. Hall instructing the other officers to kick the door in and they begin to pour on tasers and you can hear shots fired from there,” Rice said. “Upon them forcing entry into his house, they ultimately shot him several times. One time he was shot in the back he died as a result of those injuries.”

The lawsuit Rice filed says there was no reason for officers to kick in the door or enter Wallace’s home to begin with.

The suit also mentions that Hall knew Wallace had mental issues.

In fact, years prior in 1987, Wilder was indicted in the death of another man, however, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Just getting this video of the shooting to be able to see what happened was a challenge.

Rice says it was, “at least 18 months after the actual death and again maybe we could have it release earlier but for the fact that there was an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The same thing the Foster family and legal team have been told in their quest for any information from the state of Alabama.

An all too familiar situation to what Rice says he’s been going through in the Wilder case.

“The information about the cause of death is released slowly its delayed. We have a difficult time in obtaining just basic information,” he said. “Common sense or our basic understanding would tell us the purpose of having body camera footage would be for these types of situations.”

Rice says the part of this that bothers him the most, is the fact that Hall has been able to remain as the sheriff over Pickens County the whole time he’s been on Wilders case and now seeing what’s happening in the case of Glenn Foster Jr.

“What type of message and standard is that setting and sending to all those other municipalities all of those deputies responding to him?” Rice said “They’re aware of these controversies. What type of message is he directly communicating to them and by his actions?”

Pickens county Sheriff Todd Hall says he has no comments in regard to any of these deaths.




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