A man died Thursday morning after he had an “apparent medical event” while Denver police officers were arresting him the day before for allegedly assaulting a security guard and breaking windows, the Denver Police Department reported in a news release.
The man was previously detained by an apartment building’s security guards, one of whom allegedly “struck” the man after the man punched and bit another guard, according to the news release.
The 36-year-old man called 911 himself about 11:55 p.m. Tuesday night from the 1300 block of Speer Boulevard, the news release stated, and was “yelling at the call-taker, and after several minutes stated that he was having a heart attack and that people were coming to rob him.”
Denver firefighters and Denver Health paramedics responded and attempted to aid the man, but he became “combative” and walked away from the ambulance.
The man shortly after that allegedly threw a block of concrete into the glass door of a building in the same block, and Denver police responded to the scene.
The first responding officer found the man at 12:14 a.m. Wednesday yelling in the area, and the officer commanded him to keep his hands up.
The man ran away, and the news release stated the officer did not chase him and called for additional officers.
A few minutes later at 12:17 a.m., a security guard at an apartment building in the 900 block of W. 14th called 911 and reported the man damaged a window at the location.
Two guards tried to stop the man from entering the building and wrestled him to the ground in the first set of entry doors, according to the news release.
“During this struggle, it was reported that the man punched and bit one of the security guards and the security guard struck him to stop the biting,” the news release stated.
Police officers arrived at 12:20 a.m. while the guards were holding the man on the ground. The officers handcuffed the man “after a brief struggle,” and rolled him on his side “in a recovery position” while they searched him for weapons, according to the news release.
The man did not respond to questions, and officers “shortly after the arrest” saw the man had trouble breathing. The officers requested paramedics, and when the man stopped breathing, began performing CPR, according to the news release.
They also administered multiple doses of Naloxone in case the man was experiencing an opioid-related overdose, but the Naloxone had no apparent effect.
The man was taken to Denver Health and died about 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
Three Denver police officers were involved in the arrest and assistance with medical aid, according to the news release, and none of them used “less lethal systems such as TASERs or strike the man during the arrest.”
The Denver Medical Examiner’s office will identify the man and determine the cause of death.
The Denver Police Department will publicly release body-worn camera footage from the arrest at least 72 hours after the man’s family, once located, is given an opportunity to review the footage first.
Investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Colorado State Patrol and oversight by the Office of the Independent Monitor are involved in the investigation into the arrest.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office has also been involved since the beginning of the investigation.
