ORLANDO, Fla. – An investigation is underway after a man died Tuesday during an arrest, according to the Orlando Police Department.
The department said an officer responded to the 5100 block of North Lane around 10:26 a.m. where they met a man showing signs of “medical distress.”
“This is a known person that unfortunately had been trespassed from here in the past,” Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said. “We don’t know if (the officer) recognized him as the person who had been trespassed, but we do know that, in fact, there was something going on that led the officer to believe that he may have been involved some type of drug activity.”
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Rolon said the officers attempted to handcuff the man but he resisted.
“He went to the ground and he was trying to reach to his pockets and he wouldn’t expose his hands,” Rolon said, adding this was only preliminary information that needs to be verified.
The man’s family was not happy with the official explanation of what happened.
“I want an autopsy and Ben Crump,” said the man’s mother, Zericka Payne, in tears outside of the store.
“It’s suspicious, it’s suspicious, something doesn’t add up,” said his sister Desiree Patterson.
“We’re looking at the officers’ body-worn camera video, the store video — so far, everything indicates that that’s in fact what happened. He resisted some — not to the extent where it was a big fight — but to the extent where he needed to use some of our tools in order to control and eventually he was controlled,” the chief said.
Rolon later clarified the officers used batons to force the man’s compliance during the arrest. He added that investigators are trying to determine whether a Taser was used in the arrest.
“Our officers immediately began performing life-saving measures to include deploying Narcan. The patient was transported to an area hospital, where he was later pronounced deceased,” police said in a release.
“Someone was live recording and they snapped him on his neck,” said Jeremy Cony, an Orlando resident upset at the situation Tuesday. “Today is the first day of Black History Month, it’s always something. I’m just frustrated. It’s a disgrace, it’s angering, it’s frustrating. Like when will you get the message ‘Stop Killing Us.’”
The department said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an investigation into the incident.