Restraint Killed Drug-Crazed Teen

A 16-year-old Mira Mesa high school student died at the hands of police who restrained the teen-ager during a drug-induced frenzy in January, San Diego Police Chief Burgreen said Tuesday.

An autopsy released Tuesday determined that the death of John G. Hampton was a homicide, and that he was killed when a “sleeper hold” restraint was applied as he struggled with five officers on Jan. 17. Toxicological tests also determined that Hampton was under the influence of LSD, which contributed to his death.

The sleeper hold, or carotid restraint, blocks circulation through the main arteries in the neck. The official cause of Hampton’s death was lack of oxygen to brain, Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Harry J. Bonnell said.

Although criminal liability in the case is still under investigation, the death has spurred the formation of a task force of police and citizens to study police restraint methods that have led to three deaths last year, Burgreen said.

The frequency of police restraint-related homicides in San Diego County and across the nation led Burgreen to coin the term, “sudden-death syndrome,” for the series of unintended deaths.

Last May, a 31-year-old man with a history of mental illness died from a police chokehold restraint. The district attorney’s office ruled the use of the restraint was justified.

In October, another mentally disturbed 31-year-old man died in police custody after being handcuffed and tied at the ankles. Investigation into the death has not been completed, said Assistant Police Chief Cal Krosch, who will head the new task force.

The task force is expected to review about 30 deaths at the hands of police nationwide, and, in four months, report its findings to Burgreen. Proposals for department policy changes will then be considered. No change in training or policy is expected until then, Krosch said. The carotid restraint is still used by the department, he said.

“I am not ready at this time to condemn any restraint technique that we have used,” Burgreen said.

Police homicide investigators are expected to submit a report on the Hampton death to the district attorney’s office within a week, police spokesman Dave Cohen said. The district attorney will then determine if any of the five officers who struggled with Hampton are criminally liable. All of the officers have returned to normal duty.

Police declined further comment on the case.

According to earlier police reports, Hampton was watching television with his best friend and the boy’s mother, when he had an unexplained violent fit, plunging his fist through two windows, then through a hallway wall.

The friend’s mother called 911 as Hampton bolted from the house. A few minutes later, he was confronted by two officers in the yard of the friend’s home. Hampton wore only underwear and socks. His hands were still bleeding heavily, police said.

Hampton reportedly head-butted a gate in the garden, rushed the officers, and allegedly struck one officer with a flailing kick. Three other officers arrived and, with Hampton’s neck in the crook of one officer’s arm, the teen-ager was wrestled to the ground, police said.

During the struggle Hampton’s heart stopped beating, the autopsy report reads. He was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour later.

The youth’s father, Dennis Hampton, said Tuesday that he was aware of his son’s use of marijuana, but that the LSD-induced episode was “completely out of character.”

Hampton criticized the police response.

“The force they used was excessive for the crime,” Hampton said. “The coroner’s report doesn’t surprise me and it probably speaks for itself. Right now, all I can do is see what the district attorney’s office decides.”

Jim Vlassis, principal at Mira Mesa High School, said Hampton’s friends reportedly knew the youth had taken LSD the night he died. Vlassis said reports of LSD use among students have risen of late.

“Rumors have been flying around (John) used it,” Vlassis said. “I’m absolutely livid that this drug is making a comeback, that someone is giving this stuff to kids, and we don’t have someone, either from the students or police or parents, speaking out about the problem.

“How many more kids are going to have to die before something gets done?”

Times staff writer David Smollar contributed to this report.