Homeless Black Man Dies While Immobilized in Restraints at Fla. Jail
Thursday, December 9, 2004 at 08:43PM
TheSpook
A homeless man died while immobilized in restraints at the Duval County
Jail. Police said the 29-year-old man, Ezra Jones, was struggling with corrections officers following his arrest
Sunday for lying across a sidewalk. After his arrest, officers put the
inmate in a restraint chair and outfitted him with a spit mask after a
struggle in which pepper spray was used, Corrections Director Gordon
Bass said Monday. The struggle happened as officers tried to take
the man's fingerprints and he refused to loosen his fists, police union
President Nelson Cuba said. The inmate wasn't breathing and had no
pulse when a mental health nurse went to evaluate him after he spent 40
minutes in restraints, Bass said. Corrections personnel freed the man's
body and began CPR, but the man was pronounced dead at a local
hospital. An autopsy was unable to immediately determine a cause of
death and authorities won't know what killed the man until toxicology
test results are back, officials said. The death was the second in
three days of someone in police custody. Sammy Lee Evans, 49, died
Friday during an arrest for public drinking across from his Eastside
home. [more] and [more]
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