COCAINE, NOT TASER, CALLED CAUSE OF DEATH

A Coral Springs man ingested a lethal amount of cocaine when he was stunned
with a Taser, an autopsy report states.

A cocaine overdose, not repeated shocks from a Hollywood police officer's
Taser stun gun, killed a Coral Springs man last month, according to an
autopsy report released Thursday by Broward's chief medical examiner.

The report listed Kevin M. Downing's cause of death as cocaine psychosis
and excited delirium brought on by a cocaine overdose.

The report also noted that Downing may have had a history of heart
problems, a condition that Dr. Joshua Perper, the medical examiner, said he
learned about when talking to Downing's father.

"We had believed that the suspect was having some sort of chemical
reaction," Hollywood Police Capt. Tony Rode said. "And Dr. Perper's
findings clearly say that. The guy's drug levels were off the charts."

Perper said a toxicology screen showed that Downing, 36, had ingested a
lethal amount of cocaine some time before his death on Dec. 15. The
concentration of the drug in his blood was 5.4 milligrams per liter, Perper
said, adding that levels above 5 milligrams are usually fatal.

Downing also had traces of amphetamine in his system, but Perper said that
was likely from the prescription drug Adderall, which is used to treat
attention-deficit disorder.

But the attorney representing Downing's family said the autopsy report
failed to address important details.

"More is revealed by what [investigators] don't say than by what they do
say," attorney Lorne Kaiser said from his Weston office. "In our view, it's
still uncertain what role the Taser played and what role the police played
in how they handled the situation. This is far from over. It's just the end
of the beginning."

The Details

Here's what happened the night Downing died, according to the report:

At 7:49 p.m., Hollywood fire-rescue workers approached the van Downing had
been driving when they saw it parked facing north in the westbound lanes of
Sheridan Street, blocking traffic.

Downing acted "combative and belligerent," and the fire-rescue crew called
police, who forcibly removed Downing from the van.

At 8 p.m., a police officer shocked Downing with 50,000 volts of
electricity from her M26 Taser gun. The officer shocked Downing "several
times," Rode said. That was consistent with Perper's discovery of
electrical burns on Downing's chest and right wrist.

Police officers used handcuffs and leg shackles to restrain the 6-foot- 3,
274-pound Downing, and they put him face-down on a stretcher on his way to
Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.

But Perper said Downing did not die from positional asphyxiation, a type of
suffocation caused by the way a person's body is positioned, although he
noted that restraining a suspect face-down while handcuffed is "not
recommended."

Alert In Ambulance

In the ambulance, Perper said, Downing was alert and breathing normally.
Medics recorded his Glasgow Coma Score at 12. The score is an assessment of
a patient's eye, verbal and motor responses, and it ranges from three to
15, with 15 being the best score.

Downing suffered a seizure and vomited when he arrived at the hospital at
8:16 p.m., and his temperature was 105.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which Perper
said is consistent with a cocaine overdose. He was still unresponsive at
8:28 p.m., but the autopsy does not report a time of death.

Perper said he did not believe the Taser shocks contributed to Downing's
death because of the length of time between the shocks and the moment he
became unresponsive.

More than 5,000 police departments around the country now use Tasers, which
law enforcement officials hail as a way to avoid having to shoot unruly
subjects with a regular gun.

Some medical experts say the physical effects of the stun gun have not been
thoroughly studied. But the gun's manufacturer, Taser International,
insists that its research shows the weapon is safe.

Animal Research

Taser International has sponsored animal research that has concluded the
weapons are generally safe and unlikely to cause an abnormal heart rhythm.
Company officials often note that people who have died after being shocked
with Tasers haven't died immediately, but some minutes or hours later,
which officials say indicates the death and the shock were unrelated.

The Arizona Republic reviewed autopsy reports in 71 deaths following Taser
use and found that medical examiners blamed the Tasers for two of the
deaths, and that the devices contributed to four others.

Amnesty International has called on U.S. police departments to suspend
Taser use until the effects of the devices are more thoroughly studied.

The Argument

"While coroners have tended to attribute such deaths to other factors [like
drug intoxication], some medical experts question whether the Taser shocks
may exacerbate a risk of heart failure in cases where people are agitated,
under the influence of drugs, or have underlying health problems such as
heart disease," the organization said in a statement released in November.

Taser International cites independent studies done by the Department of
Defense and authorities in England, Canada and Australia that recommend the
weapons. But three of those studies urge further research. One recommended
that police send anyone they shock with a Taser to a hospital for
observation, just in case there are unexpected side effects.