Controversial Hold Used; Suspect Dies

A Los Angeles man who allegedly was firing shots at passing motorists in the Athens area died early Sunday morning after sheriff’s deputies restrained him by using a controversial method banned by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Sheriff’s officials said Dwayne Nelson, 41, was forcibly restrained by deputies using a technique called total appendage restraint procedure, or TARP. The city prohibited the LAPD from using the procedure last year after concerns were raised that it was linked to death by suffocation.

The method is approved for use in the county by the Sheriff’s Department to restrain violent and intoxicated suspects.

“It’s definitely a departmentally approved method,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Irving. “It’s a device we use to restrain combative individuals from further hurting themselves and others.”

Officials said Nelson was walking along Imperial Highway at Normandie Avenue with a handgun and shouting incoherently when deputies from the department’s Lennox station arrived on the scene at 12:40 a.m. Sunday.

Witnesses told sheriff’s officials that Nelson was firing at passing motorists, although there were no injuries or damage reported, said Deputy John McBride.

Nelson was arrested and placed in the back of a patrol car, where he began kicking the interior of the car and the window.

“For safety reasons, the suspect was taken out of the patrol car and restrained,” McBride said.

Once he was restrained, deputies noticed that Nelson was unresponsive and tried to revive him with CPR, McBride said. Paramedics transported Nelson to Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where he was pronounced dead at 2:03 a.m.

The cause of death has not been determined by the coroner’s office, and sheriff’s homicide detectives are investigating the case.

The restraint procedure the deputies used involves wrapping a nylon strap around the suspect’s legs and tying it to his handcuffs.

The technique, which some critics call a form of hogtying, has been blamed for contributing to the death of suspects from positional asphyxia. People restrained with this procedure and placed on their stomachs have reportedly suffocated from the weight of their own body.

To avoid the risk of asphyxia, sheriff’s deputies are instructed to turn a suspect on his or her side after using this form of restraint, McBride said.

“All we can say is the deputies used the procedure and followed it correctly,” he said.

Last year, Los Angeles city officials agreed to ban the practice after the city paid $750,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of a Sunland man who died after the hobbling restraint was used on him in 1995.

A LAPD training bulletin in September 1997 warned: “Due to the dangers of positional asphyxia, [the restraint method] shall not be used to bind an individual’s hand to his/her feet in any manner.”

Nelson’s death came two days after the coroner’s office announced that the Aug. 1 death of jail inmate Danny Smith was a homicide. The coroner’s office said Smith died of a heart attack brought on by a struggle with Twin Towers deputies. Smith’s family has filed a $65-million civil complaint against the Sheriff’s Department.