The family of an ex-NFL player is demanding answers after he died in police custody following a car chase and reports of a jail 'altercation'

• Former New Orleans Saints player Glenn Foster died in police custody on Monday.
• He was arrested on Saturday following a car chase with police, officials said.

The family of former New Orleans Saints player Glenn Foster Jr. is searching for answers after the 31-year-old died in police custody on Monday.

"What happened?" Foster's father, Glenn Foster Sr., said in an interview with the Washington Post. "We know nothing because we didn't have access to our son. We never got the chance to see him."

In the days before Foster's death, Foster had been in a car chase with police officers, was involved in an "altercation" with another inmate at a jail, and had tried to get medical help, authorities and family members told The Post and Nola.com.

Family members told Nola.com that Foster was bipolar, and they believe Foster was experiencing a mental health episode at the time of his arrest.

Foster, a father-of-four who retired from the NFL in 2016, had been taken into custody by the Reform Police Department on Saturday, the agency's Chief Richard Black told NOLA.com.

Black said officers saw Foster driving 90 miles per hour in a 45 miles-per-hour area, and a police chase ensued when they tried to pull over the former football pro.

Ultimately, officers used a spike strip to slow Foster's car down before arresting him on reckless endangerment and resisting arrest charges and booking him into the Pickens County Jail, Black said.

Black told Nola.com that it was then that he contacted Foster's family, voicing concern over Foster's erratic behavior.

But when Foster's family arrived at the jail on Sunday, they were told Foster had been in an "altercation" with another inmate and was placed in a different jurisdiction in the sheriff's office — one they couldn't access because of COVID-19 precautions, Glenn Foster Sr. told The Post.

Glenn Foster Sr. said arrangements were made for his son to be taken to a medical facility on Monday.

But after getting into a police cruiser without incident, Foster arrived at the medical center unresponsive and was later pronounced dead, Glenn Foster Sr. told The Post.

A cause of death is unknown and the Pickens County Medical Examiner & Coroner's Office told Nola.com that autopsy results are still pending.

"I can't get my son back, but we want whoever is responsible to pay for this," Foster's mother, Sabrina Foster, told Nola.com.

Alabama state police said in a press release shared with Insider that its State Bureau of Investigation is investigating Foster's death.