Man Dies after Scuffle With Police

A Hollywood man died Saturday in police custody shortly after being clubbed with nightsticks by Los Angeles police officers as they arrested him for harassing a family in his neighborhood, police said.

Tracy Mayberry, 35, stopped breathing after officers struck him on both arms and both legs with batons during a struggle to arrest him, said Lt. William Hall of the department’s Robbery and Homicide Division.

Police had been called after Mayberry allegedly forced his way into a home in the 400 block of Norton Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday and attacked a resident and her son.

Hall added that the arresting officers had “formed the opinion that Mayberry was under the influence of an unknown type of narcotic,” and that, as a result, acted “violent and bizarre.”

But several residents in the generally quiet, tree-lined neighborhood said they witnessed officers using excessive force in the arrest, and alleged that police continued to beat Mayberry after he had submitted to arrest.

“There were half a dozen police over him while he was standing,” said Mirriam Morales, 35, a resident on Norton Avenue for 11 years. “Then they dropped him down on his stomach and they kept swinging their joysticks on him hard, I mean really hitting him with those things.”

Police are investigating the incident and an autopsy has been scheduled to determine what caused Mayberry’s death, Hall said.

The names of the officers involved were not released.

Marvin Mansour, 13, the older son of the family involved in the incident, said Mayberry, a stranger, kicked in the door of their home and told the Mansours that he was being chased by assailants.

“He didn’t say who they were, just that they were trying to kill him,” Marvin said. “Then he told us to call the police to have them come protect him. He said he was going to kill us if we didn’t call the police.”

Before the youth fled the house, he said he saw Mayberry push his mother, Margaret, 49, into their bathtub and then grab his brother Johnny, 8.

“It didn’t seem like he was really trying to hurt anyone,” Marvin said. “He seemed more like he was crazy. He kept saying that we had to call the police. The whole time it was like he was really scared.”

The boy’s father, Hanna Mansour, 44, said at least seven neighbors noticed the disturbance and had called police by the time his son fled the house. Three police officers arrived within minutes of Mayberry’s intrusion into the home, the younger Mansour said.

An attorney who was contacted by Mayberry’s relatives after news of the alleged police beating began circulating said she talked to more than a dozen neighbors who criticized the officers’ conduct.

“A lot of people in the neighborhood knew Tracy had a drug problem,” the attorney, Iris Johnson-Bright, said. “But the way the police decided to deal with it has got a lot of people upset.