Man Dies in Jail Struggle

A 30-year-old man just booked into the downtown County Jail Thursday died after a struggle with sheriff’s deputies.

The deputies were escorting Manuel Aquiningoc to a padded cell at 7:10 a.m. when a struggle broke out and he went into cardiac arrest, said Sheriff’s Deputy Victoria Reden.

Deputies tried unsuccessfully to revive Aquiningoc, who was then taken by paramedics to UCSD Medical Center.

He was pronounced dead in the hospital’s emergency room at 9:26 a.m., said Jerry Hillbrand, an investigator for the county medical examiner.

The official cause of death was not determined, Hillbrand said. An autopsy was scheduled for today.

Aquiningoc was arrested by San Diego police at 11:50 Wednesday night in the 4400 block of Marlborough Avenue on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance and forcefully resisting arrest, according to police records. He was booked into the downtown jail at 2:10 a.m.

Ned Schnorr, a next-door neighbor, said police were called to the block after Aquiningoc had been walking up and down the street, “ranting and raving” and threatening neighbors. Schnorr said Aquiningoc had had such outbursts before.

At the time Aquiningoc suffered the heart attack, Reden said, deputies were using “pain compliance” holds on him in an attempt to move him to the padded cell for medical observation.