AUTOPSY TO DETERMINE IF PORT SALERNO MAN'S DEATH BROUGHT ABOUT BY TASER

STUART - An autopsy today will determine whether a 31-year-old Port Salerno
man's death this weekend could be the first linked to a Taser in Martin County.

Florida leads the nation in Taser-related deaths in the past five years,
with 27. A West Palm Beach man died in July from complications after he was
shocked. A Fort Lauderdale man died in June after being shocked while he
had cocaine in his system.

Martin County sheriff's deputies and fire-rescue personnel responded to a
911 call at 10:46 p.m. Friday from Riverland Mobile Home Park on Kanner
Highway. They found Brian Lichtenstein running naked into the woods.

Sgt. Shane King fired two shots from his Taser in an attempt to control
Lichtenstein, who was acting aggressively, an incident report stated.
Lichtenstein then was admitted to Martin Memorial Medical Center for a
possible drug overdose, where he died Saturday morning.

William Steele, 68, and his wife Judy, 66, called 911 when they heard a
noise outside and saw Lichtenstein lying in the bushes between their home
and a neighbor's.

"We didn't know who it was," William Steele said Sunday. "This fellow
staggered up, he didn't have a shirt on, his shoes were out there
somewhere, his pants were down around his knees. He stumbled and fell over
my bushes."

As the Steeles watched, Lichtenstein crawled up on the hood of their 2005
Sebring, where he took off the remainder of his clothing. When the police
arrived, he was lying in the driveway in front of the car, Steele said.

"I wasn't about to try and handle somebody I didn't know," Steele said. "He
was a pretty good-sized guy." Deputies later reported Lichtenstein was 6
feet tall, weighing 200 pounds.

According to arrest reports, deputies followed Lichtenstein into the wooded
area behind the Steele residence, where he screamed, "Leave me alone," and
"I want to die."

King fired his Taser twice at Lichtenstein when he reportedly ignored
orders to stop running. Another deputy said in a statement that after he
heard the Taser discharge, he saw Lichtenstein "crashing violently through
the heavy underbrush."

Lichtenstein fought back with "almost superhuman" strength, but deputies
said they finally managed to pull him out of the woods by his legs, binding
him with a sheet and handcuffs to subdue him.

Lichtenstein's wife, Angela, 28, said she and her husband had been smoking
crack cocaine for the previous three days. When their vehicle ran out of
gas in front of the mobile home park, Brian Lichtenstein was afraid someone
had called the police, so he started to run. "I tried to keep up and yelled
for him to come back, but he kept going," she wrote in a statement.

Angela Lichtenstein walked 4 1/2 miles home to the couple's small trailer
on Southeast Horizon Avenue in Port Salerno, which on Sunday had a shopping
cart in the front yard. Next door, a trailer was spray-painted with a large
skull-and-crossbones and the words "Keep Out."

She and her family declined to comment Sunday. "He's gone and that's it,"
said a woman who answered a phone at the residence before hanging up.

Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder said the death is not linked to the
Taser at this time. He said King remains on the job and will not face any
disciplinary action until autopsy results are available.

"Other than the fact that this individual died, everything else was handled
according to policy and procedure as far as I've been made aware," he said.
Crowder said he believes the autopsy scheduled today will prove the Taser
shots weren't to blame for Lichtenstein's death.

The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office remains the only agency on the
Treasure Coast without Tasers or plans to purchase them. Despite a positive
response from sheriff's offices to the north and south, St. Lucie County
Sheriff Ken Mascara reported earlier in the year he felt there was not
sufficient historical data on the stun guns to ensure their level of safety.

Lichtenstein was arrested June 18 in Palm Beach County on charges including
resisting arrest with violence, grand theft auto, assault on an officer,
fleeing and eluding, aggravated fleeing causing serious injury or death,
reckless driving and aggravated battery on an officer.

Staff writer Casse Carling contributed to this report.