A review of custodial deaths in Texas in which the cause of death is listed as excited delirium syndrome due to acute intoxication with cocaine also reveals violent struggles with police officers in which the suspect is often tased repeatedly and fights against being restrained with handcuffs. The following is one of those incidents.

A Lethal Combination Involving Cocaine and a Police Struggle

Texas police officers went to a scene where gunfire had been reported, and they originally approached a 35-year-old man to help him because he was screaming and running. Once the man stopped, however, he reportedly attacked the police officers. One of the officers sprayed the man with pepper spray, but it had no effect. The man took the canister of pepper spray from the officer and broke off the trigger mechanism. A struggle between the two began, and they both fell to the ground.

The officer fired a taser onto the man’s back and side and drive-stunned him three times. Still, the officer was unable to subdue the man. The two officers together finally managed to handcuff the man. When they rolled him over, the man was no longer responsive.

The officers began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while waiting for the emergency medical services personnel. Once EMS arrived at the scene, they attempted to revive the man, but he was pronounced dead in the early morning hours.

The police department made a statement that if the man had not died, he would have been taken into emergency custody and transported to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8 of this continuing series.

This site’s posts are meant as a helpful resource for inmates in Texas. It is never intended to infer that misdeeds have occurred on the part of an institution or person.

–Guest Contributor