Autopsy Fails to Fix Blame in Taser Gun Death

A 24-year-old man who died last month after police shot him with a 50,000-volt Taser gun succumbed to “cardiorespiratory failure due to cocaine and morphine intoxication,” according to toxicology reports released Tuesday by the San Diego County coroner’s office.

But the coroner did not classify Mario Gastelum’s death as an accident, homicide or suicide. The report said there was insufficient medical evidence to “clearly establish beyond a reasonable doubt the interrelation of drug ingestion, the use of the Taser and physical restraint and how it relates to cardiorespiratory failure.”

The information was passed on to the San Diego County district attorney’s office, which investigates all shootings involving police officers. Spokesman Steve Casey said no decision will be made on the matter until police forward investigative reports they are compiling.

Police and an attorney hired by Gastelum’s family differ on the number of times Gastelum was shot with the Taser. The attorney, Antonio Valladolid, said last month that hospital records quoted officers as telling doctors that Gastelum was shot as many as five times with the Taser gun, which incapacitates its victims with an electric charge delivered through darts it fires.

Valladolid did not attribute Gastelum’s death to the Taser, but faulted police for what he said was repeated use of the weapon on him.

Valladolid and Gastelum’s father, Ralph, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Police say that Gastelum was shot three times with the Taser. The police department is conducting “a criminal investigation” of the incident and will forward their reports to the district attorney’s office.

According to the police version of the incident, officers were called to an Encanto residence Nov. 2 by a woman who reported that a man was under her house acting strangely. The officers arrived at 12:36 a.m. and found Gastelum under the house, dressed in his underwear.

When Gastelum, who has a history of drug use, became combative and refused to come out from under the house, he was shot twice with the Taser gun and taken into custody.

Gastelum was handcuffed and taken to Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, where he became violent again, police said. Police shot him a third time with the Taser.

After he was wheeled into the emergency room, Gastelum suffered a heart attack and collapsed into a coma. He died two days later.