The Region - News from July 21, 1986

A 39-year-old man died in police custody after running naked through the kitchen, ballroom and lobby of a San Fernando Valley hotel, smashing dishes, musical instruments and glass doors in what investigators said may have been a drug-induced rampage. Witnesses told police that the man, whose name was not immediately disclosed, walked naked into the fourth-floor kitchen of the Valley Hilton and began breaking plates and glasses. The man then ran into an adjoining ballroom, where he tried to damage instruments belonging to a band that was rehearsing, and finally into the hotel lobby, where he shattered crockery and glass doors before guests and hotel employees restrained him. He stopped breathing while being loaded into a police car, and was pronounced dead at Encino Hospital. An autopsy was ordered.