Las Vegas police provide details on in-custody death
Metropolitan police officers twice administered Narcan and then attempted CPR on a man they’d just taken into custody Tuesday after he became unresponsive after being handcuffed. The man was later pronounced dead.
Assistant Sheriff Jamie Prosser said in a press briefing Friday that the officers waited for 17 minutes for emergency medical personnel to arrive on the scene to transport 56-year-old Michael Turner to University Medical Center.
Video shared at the press conference included one officer asking what was taking the medical team so long to arrive.
The incident began when police responded at 8:37 a.m. to a report of a fight at a business in the 4700 block of West Charleston Boulevard. Two people told officers Turner had assaulted them before crossing the street and getting into a car, police said.
An officer drove his patrol vehicle over to Turner’s car, but Turner began to drive away before high centering on a concrete median and then backing up into the officer’s vehicle, Prosser said.
The officer ordered Turner out of the car, and the man crawled onto the ground. Prosser said the officer handcuffed the man and put him on his back, in a position that doesn’t restrict breathing and called for medical assistance.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” the officer can be heard saying in body camera footage shown at the press briefing.
Footage also shows another officer, who said, “He doesn’t look good, dude.”
As Turner appeared non-responsive, the officer attempted to pull him up into a seated position, the footage shows.
“Wake up, wake up, wake up,” the officer said as he rubbed Turner’s chest and yelled his name.
The officers removed his handcuffs. They then administered Narcan twice, which was ineffective, and chest compressions, according to Prosser and confirmed by the footage. Turner was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:37 a.m., Prosser said.
Almost 50 grams of methamphetamines were found in Turner’s vehicle, and 29 grams were found on his body at the hospital, according to Prosser. Neither the cause of death nor his relation to the other two individuals have been released yet.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.
