2:15 p.m. update:
A report released Friday afternoon by the Little Rock Police Department offered new details on the arrest of a man who died while in custody the night before.
Police wrote in the report that the man, whose identity is not included in the report, was located in the kitchen of a residence he had broken into on Red Gate Drive in southwest Little Rock.
According to the report, the man pulled away from officers and kicked when they tried to take him into custody. The report says officers took him to the floor, struck him with a closed fist and placed a knee on his back at different points before he was handcuffed.
The report says an officer again placed a knee on the man's back when he began "kicking and flailing" after being handcuffed. Police at one point placed a Taser on the man's back, but it was never activated, the report said.
Officers reportedly later realized the man was not breathing and began performing CPR. The man was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center, where he died.
The report indicates officers on scene believed the man was on "sherm," the street name for a mixture of marijuana and PCP.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
— Arkansas Online
Noon update:
Little Rock police said a man died after he resisted arrest late Thursday night in the southwest part of the city.
Lt. Steve McClanahan, a spokesman for the Little Rock Police Department, said officers were called to 100 Aliza Drive on a report of a suspicious person and found a man who was wearing only shorts and acting "very erratic."
The man, who hasn't been identified, didn't obey the officers' commands and resisted their attempts to arrest him, McClanahan said. The officers wrestled him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs, the police spokesman added.
"That's when they noticed he had difficulty breathing and he became unresponsive," McClanahan said.
The officers performed CPR before medics arrived and took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
McClanahan said the two officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, per department procedure. He said both internal and criminal investigations were being conducted.
McClanahan said there were "absolutely zero" signs of trauma on the body and that witness statements line up with what the officers reported. The audio recorders the officers were wearing were activated at the time.
Someone last died in Little Rock police custody in 2012. In that case, an attorney filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department last year regarding the death of Booker Davis Jr. Booker died after he was placed in handcuffs and stopped breathing.
McClanahan was told the last time someone died in the custody of Little Rock police was in 2004. At the time, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Robert Harold Allen died after he was shot with a taser by Sgt. Ricky Wilson on April 17 of that year. The newspaper also reported that a man died at a now-closed holding facility in North Little Rock after being arrested by Little Rock police in August 2005.
McClanahan said the officers did not use a taser to subdue the man Thursday.
Police don't know who the man is and described him only as being Hispanic. McClanahan said investigators don't know if the man was on a controlled substance.
When the officers first got to the scene, a trailer park near the Pulaski County border with Saline County, they found a door knocked in at 100 Aliza Drive. McClanahan said they then heard what sounded like a door being kicked in at 71 Red Gate Drive, a street over from Aliza. That's where the man was apprehended shortly after 11:30 p.m.
The names of the officers involved will be released later today, McClanahan said.
— Austin Cannon
Earlier:
A suspect has died after being taken into custody by officers with the Little Rock Police Department.
The agency said police were called to investigate a suspicious person Thursday night at 100 Aliza Drive, which is near Stagecoach Road in southwest Little Rock.
Police spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said in an email that officers took a man into custody and that person later died at nearby 71 Red Gate Drive. The man's name wasn't released.
The cause of death wasn't released and additional details weren't immediately available.
McClanahan said additional information would be released later Friday morning.
Check back later for updates.
— Arkansas Online
