GARDEN GROVE : Man’s Death in Jail Believed Suffocation

A man who was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness died in a Police Department holding cell when he apparently suffocated on his own vomit, police officials said Monday.

Nasr Mohamed, 42, of Garden Grove, was pronounced dead at 10:15 p.m. Sunday by paramedics, Sgt. Steve Sanders said. He had been arrested earlier in the evening at a supermarket parking lot at the corner of Euclid Street and Chapman Avenue.

Mohamed died as he lay on a cot with his back to a video camera that monitors activities inside the police station’s three holding cells, officials said.

“Any movement by the prisoner whatsoever, you can see,” Police Sgt. Dale Farley said. But, “if he is laying down with his back toward the camera, naturally you can’t see any facial movement.”

Mohamed’s body was discovered by the night watch commander while he was making a routine check of the cells. The holding cells are inspected every 15 minutes, officials said.

An autopsy was performed Monday morning by the Orange County coroner’s office, but the exact cause of death is not expected to be released for about 16 weeks, according to William King, coroner’s investigating supervisor.

Although autopsy results were not immediately available, police said that evidence suggested that Mohamed died when he began vomiting and was unable to wake up fully.

Police Chief John Robertson said Mohamed was the first person to die in custody at the police station in about 15 years.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the death, Sanders said.