Are people in police custody dying of excited delirium?
February 28, 2007 Imagine a person in the middle of the street, yelling nonsense and stumbling about, unable to keep his balance, obviously not in his right mind. He is waving a knife at bystanders and at the police who have been called to the scene. The police try to convince the man to put the knife down, but he clearly has no idea they’re even talking to him. So the police take action: They draw their guns and move toward him. The man responds violently, hysterically, jabbing the knife at police. With six officers working together, they’re finally able to restrain him and get him on the ground, but he’s still thrashing around with what seems like superhuman strength. They start hitting him with their night sticks, and they keep hitting him until he calms down. But then they realize he’s not just calm. He’s dead. In this theoretical incident, if the medical examiner can rule out the police beating as the cause of death and can find no clear indication of a fatal, biological occurrenc
