The Richmond Times-Dispatch
PROVIDENCE FORGE, VA — A Maryland man who was pepper-sprayed and shocked with a Taser by police died Saturday after collapsing in a holding cell at the New Kent County Sheriff’s Office, Virginia State Police said yesterday.
State police identified the man as Yvelt Occean, 31, of Silver Spring, Md., who was stopped at 7:30 p.m. after he was seen walking and waving at traffic along westbound Interstate 64 near mile marker 217 in the vicinity of Providence Forge.
A woman who answered a call to Occean’s phone number in Silver Spring last night said, “We are very upset, but this will be investigated because he died in police custody.”
The man repeatedly resisted a trooper’s efforts to get him out of traffic and take him into custody, state police said in a statement.
The trooper then sprayed Occean with pepper spray and arrested him “with the assistance of a passer-by,” state police said.
Minutes later, New Kent sheriff’s deputies and a county rescue squad arrived at the scene, the statement said.
Authorities said Occean was treated by the rescue squad but still refused to obey the trooper’s commands. The man resisted further medical treatment and refused to be taken to a hospital, the statement said.
Troopers and sheriff’s deputies tried to place Occean in a deputy’s vehicle, but he “continued to resist and ignored numerous warnings from a deputy that he would be ‘tasered,’” the statement said.
A deputy then used a Taser device on him and drove him to the New Kent Sheriff’s Office, where he was taken before a magistrate, the statement said. State police spokesman Sgt. Thomas A. Cunningham Jr. said he could not release the condition of the inmate at the time of the appearance before the magistrate because the case is still under investigation.
Occean was charged with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and being a pedestrian on an interstate highway, state police said.
Herman W. Moore, the magistrate who issued warrants against Occean, said last night that Occean was held in a single cell and was being watched by deputies.
Just before 10 p.m., Occean collapsed and became unresponsive.
State police said the deputies tried CPR on Occean and called for a rescue squad. He was taken by ambulance to Richmond Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Cunningham said the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation and that authorities are awaiting autopsy results from the medical examiner’s office.
The New Kent Sheriff’s Office is referring all calls on the matter to state police.
Police departments that use Taser weapons say they are designed to stun and temporarily disable a person. But people who oppose their use say they can severely injure and even kill.
Tasers fire two metal barbs that are attached to wires, which can cover a distance of 25 feet. The charge causes the muscles of an individual to involuntarily contract, which immediately incapacitates the individual for the duration of the shock, usually lasting about five seconds.
Once the shock subsides, the individual can recover completely in about 10 seconds.
Critics argue that the devices are used too frequently and that more research is needed on the health risk to people.
The ACLU claimed in a report in 2006 that 148 people in the U.S. and Canada have died since 1999 as a result of Tasers.
Taser International maintains that its product is safe.
More than 7,000 police departments across the U.S. owned about 140,000 Tasers in 2005, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Most local law-enforcement agencies equip some officers with Tasers. Last month, the Hopewell Bureau of Police announced that all its officers now carry the weapon. Hopewell Chief Steven D. Martin was purposely shocked by a Taser during a recent City Council meeting to show how the weapon works.
Copyright 2008 The Richmond Times-Dispatch