Man held down by LR police dies

Suspect stopped breathing; drugs suspected, officer says

A 37-year-old man died Thursday as police officers held him on the ground and he stopped breathing, authorities said.

Multiple officers were sent at 4:05 p.m. to investigate a disturbance in the 1200 block of North Tyler Street, Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Michael Ford said. Police had not identified the dead man as of Thursday night.

In the 911 call, Ford said a woman was screaming in the background saying that someone in the house was high on narcotics.

Dispatch logs list the call as a family disturbance.

When officers arrived, they could tell that the man was under the influence of narcotics, Ford said, and called a Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services ambulance to transport the man to a hospital. The intention, Ford said, was not initially to arrest the man but to take him to a hospital.

“We could tell there was something wrong with him,” Ford said.

The man was acting erratically — though not combative — Ford said, and attempted to flee the officers. Officers chased the man, caught him and held him on the ground with their hands, Ford said.

While officers were holding him down, Ford said the man stopped breathing. Ford did not say how the officers were holding him down or if he gave any other signs of distress before he stopped breathing.

The man was pronounced dead at the hospital, he said.

Ford did not say how long officers had the man on the ground or how long it took the ambulance to arrive at the house.

A MEMS dispatcher said MEMS received a call for an ambulance to the North Tyler Street address at 4:15 p.m. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at 4:53 p.m., according to MEMS.

Ford said internal affairs and homicide detectives will conduct a “dual” investigation, meaning the circumstances of the death and the officers’ role in the death will be looked into simultaneously.

The residential area of North Tyler Street is filled with front porches, brightly colored homes and steep drives. Just a few blocks away sits a house where Bill and Hillary Clinton lived from 1977-79.

On Thursday night, the house with police cars gathered behind yellow crime tape stood out. Overgrown trees and shrubs covered the area, almost blocking the two-story, green residence from view. A red sheet covered half of an upstairs window.

Behind the house, a tall wooden panel fence blocked the view from the alleyway. There, too, crepe myrtles and honeysuckle vines grew unchecked.

Ford said the alleyway is where police detained the man and where he stopped breathing.

Crime scene technicians photographed and documented three police cars that were parked in front of the residence, and Ford said no dash camera footage was available showing the altercation.

Ford said police have gone to the house multiple times in response to disturbance calls.

Though Ford said he did not yet know how many people were in the house at the time of the disturbance, at least one woman from the residence was taken in for questioning.

Police also went door to door, looking for residents who may have seen the incident.

Bill Forbess, who lives on the other side of the alley diagonal to where the man died, said his wife went to the police station to give a statement.

“It’s noisy over there, lots of fights,” Forbess said. “Plenty of police.”