Man Picked Up by Police Dies After His Release

A 28-year-old Panorama City man taken into custody on an identity mistake lapsed into unconsciousness and died as he was being freed Friday, police said. The cause was being investigated but a hospital spokeswoman said there were no initial signs of violence.

Luis Romero was pronounced dead at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City, where he had been taken by fire department helicopter from the LAPD’s Devonshire Division station.

No force was used on Romero during the three-hour period he was in custody, said LAPD Lt. Ken Lady, the officer investigating the death.

Romero’s heart had stopped when paramedics brought him in, said hospital spokeswoman Cathy Fickes. It will take several days to complete tests for the cause of death, she said, but the initial reports by doctors and the paramedics indicated no evidence of a struggle, she said.

Coroner’s officials said an autopsy would be performed during the weekend.

Romero’s car was stopped about 2:45 a.m. by officers Edward Herrera, 33, and Alberto Del Valle, 30, said Jason Lee, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. The police computer system indicated Romero was wanted on a felony warrant and could be armed and dangerous, Lee said.

Romero was taken to the Devonshire station, where he established that he was not the Luis Romero in the warrant, Lady said.

“Luis Romero happens to be one of those common names,” he said.

Herrera and Del Valle were driving Romero back to his car when he began having seizures in the back seat, he said.

“He came to again and then said he didn’t feel good,” Fickes said, reading from the paramedics’ report. “Then he went back down with a series of seizures and went into full [cardiac] arrest.

Paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation as they rushed Romero to the hospital, Fickes said.

Police ruled the incident a “law enforcement-related death” rather than a “death in custody” because Romero was technically a free man when he began having convulsions, Lee said.