Police Cleared of Wrongdoing in Youth’s Death at Concert

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Friday cleared Inglewood police of any wrongdoing in the death of an Orange County teen-ager who was forcibly arrested last Dec. 10 outside a Grateful Dead concert at the Forum.

District attorney investigators said the officer who had used a carotid chokehold to subdue Patrick Shanahan, 19, of Fountain Valley did not commit criminal homicide.

An autopsy said Shanahan died of “compression of the neck during restraint.” The report also found a high level of LSD in his blood and bruises over his body.

After subduing Shanahan with the chokehold, officers tied his ankles with a nylon rope, handcuffed him and carried him to a police car, investigators said. There, police discovered he had stopped breathing and brought him to nearby Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

William Shanahan, Patrick’s father, said he is “very disappointed” by the report. “There is a lot of conflict between the police version and the witness version of what happened,” William Shanahan said.

The family has filed a wrongful death suit against the city.

Police discounted reports from numerous witnesses who said they saw officers beating Shanahan with their nightsticks.

Police acknowledged using force against the UC Santa Barbara student but they said it was necessary to defend themselves and to subdue the youth.

The district attorney’s report agreed, saying officers “had a legal right and duty” to arrest Shanahan and “the use by a single officer of a carotid hold” to help subdue Shanahan did not amount to a criminal homicide.

Describing the situation, Inglewood police spokesman Sgt. Harold Moret said: “You’ve got several hundred people on hallucinogenic drugs . . . four or five incidents happening at one time . . . officers were using whatever force was necessary . . . (with) guys that were blasted out of their minds on hallucinogenic drugs.”