Man dies 3 days after allegedly fighting with Baltimore County police in Middle River
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-co-police-fight-20160920-story.html#
A 21-year-old Baltimore County man died Wednesday, days after police say he struggled with several police officers in Middle River.
Tawon Boyd was injured in the confrontation Sunday morning, authorities said, but they did not provide details. An attorney for Boyd’s family said his kidneys and heart failed.
An autopsy is to be performed to determine the cause of death, authorities said, and the county police and fire departments are conducting internal investigations.
Police say officers who were called to the first block of Akin Circle in Middle River just after 3 a.m. Sunday arrived at a chaotic scene. They said Boyd’s girlfriend had called 911 and said he was acting “crazy.”
Officers said they found Boyd “confused and paranoid, sweating heavily.”
Boyd tried to run to different police cars and get inside and was banging on neighbors’ doors, according to police and his grandmother.
Tawon Boyd
Tawon Boyd, a 21-year-old Baltimore County man, has died after allegedly fighting with police in Middle River early Sunday morning. This image shows Boyd in the hospital after the incident. (Family photo via WJZ / Handout)
Linda Burch, Boyd’s grandmother, lived with the couple and their toddler son on Akin Circle. She said Boyd “was acting kind of strange, like he was on something.”
But she said police used too much force to restrain him.
“He was just hollering and screaming on the ground, and they just kept pushing him down, pushing him down, on his shoulder and back and stuff, hitting him,” Burch said. “He was trying to get them off of him.”
Burch said she and Boyd’s girlfriend were afraid he would be seriously hurt.
“I kept telling them stop before they hurt him because I told them they could kill him like that,” she said. “They told me to go across the street before they lock me up.”
Police said Boyd resisted arrest. They said three officers who restrained Boyd were injured. One wrote in a police report that he punched Boyd twice because Boyd was hanging onto him.
The officers said they were able to finally restrain Boyd by holding him down with their arms and body weight.
Medics were called and administered something to Boyd, but the treatment was redacted in the police report, and police officials said medical privacy laws prevented them from releasing it.
Boyd calmed down, police said, and an officer asked a medic to check his pulse. Boyd was still breathing and had a heartbeat as he was loaded into an ambulance, police said.
“Mr. Boyd was in need of medical attention, and the police responded with violence,” said Latoya Francis-Williams, the family’s attorney. “The police beat him into intensive care, and now he’s no longer with us.”