Man, 30, Dies In Police Custody Man Arrested Without Struggle, Then Passes Out Moments Later

A 30-year-old man died early Tuesday while in Spokane Police custody.

Police would not identify the man, saying his family had not been notified. Department spokesman Dick Cottam said the family lives in another state.

According to Chief Terry Mangan, the man was placed in the back of a patrol car after officers, who pulled him over for a traffic violation about 1 a.m., learned there was a warrant for his arrest.

Moments later, officers noticed the man had passed out, said Mangan. He died at a Spokane hospital. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

The man was handcuffed, but “there was no struggle,” Mangan said.

Mangan said a police report had not yet been filed by officers involved in the case. “The person who is writing that report is home asleep,” the chief said Tuesday afternoon.

Mangan and Cottam said they did not know which hospital the man was taken to, why there was a warrant for his arrest or how he had violated traffic laws.

“I think it was driving erratically, that type of thing,” said Cottam.

The circumstances of Tuesday’s death differ sharply from those surrounding the death of another man who died last year after struggling with police. Mario Lozada was restrained with a nylon belt and placed face-down in a patrol car.

Forensic pathologist George Lindholm and King County’s chief medical examiner said Lozada’s death was caused by “positional asphyxia,” which can occur when someone is placed face down for long periods.

Spokane County Coroner Dexter Amend and a Colorado lung specialist asked to testify in a lawsuit stemming from Lozada’s death both contend the man died of a drug overdose.

, DataTimes