DA EXAMINING DEATH OF MAN IN COPS' CUSTODY

Detainee Found Without Pulse In Police Car After Being Restrained

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office is investigating why a
39-year-old Redwood City man died in the back of a police car after being
pepper-sprayed, restrained and arrested Sunday night.

Coroner Robert Foucrault declined to comment on the results of Monday's
autopsy on Rick Escobedo. Toxicology results on possible drug use could
take from three to four weeks, he said.

The five officers involved remained on full-time duty, according to Redwood
City police Capt. Scott Warner. ``There was no indication that these guys
did anything wrong,'' Warner said.

Warner said his city hasn't recorded a death during police custody for more
than a decade.

There have been Bay Area cases.

Last year, a 45-year-old transient in San Jose died after being
pepper-sprayed during a scuffle with police. In 1998, a San Jose man
suspected of sexually assaulting three women died within minutes of police
handcuffing him and binding his legs in a hold. The officers in both cases
were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Warner said Escobedo's case began Sunday at 5:50 p.m. after someone called
police to report that he had climbed onto his ex-girlfriend's apartment
balcony on Woodside Road. A friend of the girlfriend, who asked not to be
named by the Mercury News, said Escobedo, a concrete worker, had been
separated from his girlfriend and their son for a couple of months.

Two police officers, whom Warner declined to name, arrived at the scene.
When they tried to search Escobedo, he violently resisted.

As the two officers tried to hold Escobedo down and wrap a restraint around
his ankle, Warner said, they called other officers for ``emergency cover''
- -- a call used only when officers feel they are in danger or about to lose
custody of a suspect.

Minutes later, three more officers arrived. Warner said an officer maced
Escobedo in the face, then wrapped a rope nunchaku around his ankles.
Finally, they put a ``wrap'' -- a restraining device that works similarly
to a straight-jacket -- around his legs and handcuffed him.

The girlfriend's friend said Escobedo was yelling ``Help! You're hurting
me!'' during the confrontation. She said he was brought out motionless and
silent from the balcony on a stretcher.

Warner said the officers took the man to a police car, put him inside,
called emergency workers to come wash the pepper spray off his face and
began interviewing witnesses.

About four minutes later, Warner said, emergency workers opened the door
and found Escobedo sitting in the back of the police car. He was not
breathing, and there was no pulse. He was pronounced dead at Kaiser
Permanente Medical Center in Redwood City.