A man died Wednesday afternoon during an altercation with Woodland police officers who responded to reports of his bizarre behavior in several residential areas.
Lt. Anthony Cucchi said officers were summoned at about 12:15 p.m. to the Autumn Run Apartments, 1180 Matmor Road, where witnesses said the man, dressed in a trench coat over a towel, was exposing himself to and cursing at people while carrying both a pair of scissors and a chef’s knife.
Police arrived on scene and began searching for the man, who by this time had ventured south to the 1300 block of Coolidge Place. There, a witness reported that the man was carrying a golf club, had a large knife in his pocket and was trying to break into vehicles, Cucchi said.
Officers found the man a block away on Garfield Place, still carrying the golf club.
“The subject was acting erratically and swinging the golf club around. Officers on scene repeatedly told the subject to put the golf club down and attempted to negotiate with him,” Cucchi said in a news release. “The subject charged at and assaulted officers, causing injury to one officer.”
Cucchi said officers used a Taser to gain control of the man, who after being handcuffed was discovered to have stopped breathing. Police began CPR and called for medical aid, but the man died after being taken by ambulance to Woodland Memorial Hospital.
His name had not been released as of Wednesday evening pending notification of next of kin. According to Cucchi, he “does have a violent criminal past with the city of Woodland.”
An autopsy to determine cause and manner of death is scheduled for Thursday.
Several of the officers involved in the incident had previously received training in crisis intervention techniques, Cucchi noted.
Their actions will be investigated by the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, an outside law-enforcement agency — a standard operating procedure for any officer-involved violent incident — a probe assigned in this case to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office. Its findings will then be forwarded to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Anyone with information about this incident to call the Sheriff’s Office’s 24-hour business number 530-666-8282.
The Woodland Police Department’s last in-custody death occurred back in 2008, when Davis resident and former law student Ricardo Abrahams, 44, stopped breathing after being struck multiple times with Tasers and batons, then handcuffed while in a prone position. Coroner’s officials ruled that he died of positional asphyxia.
Abrahams, who suffered from bipolar disorder, was contacted by officers during a welfare check after he walked away from a Woodland mental-health facility he had checked himself into the night before. Police said Abrahams acted aggressively and would not comply with officers’ commands.
Police were cleared of wrongdoing following an investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office, a ruling that Abrahams’ family attorney called “flawed.” The city of Woodland later paid $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by Abrahams’ family, though admitted no wrongdoing or negligence.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurenKeene