On Friday, around 3 a.m. at Atkin Circle in Middle River, #Maryland, officers responded to a disturbance call from 21-year-old #TawonBoyd.
According to reports, Boyd called the cops to report a break in. He was apparently nervous and disheveled, thinking his girlfriend was recording him while someone else was inside the home.
“There is someone in the house. You need to go inside and search. He further stated that he believes his girlfriend got him intoxicated and is secretly recording him while someone else is in the home,” the incident report stated.
According to #WBALTV 11, when officers arrived on the scene, they insisted Boyd needed medical attention. As they tried to take him to the hospital, Boyd ran off, screaming, asking neighbors to call the police. Apparently, when officials got a hold of the 21-year-old to restrain him, Boyd resisted.
“Police were on his shoulders and had him face-down on the ground. They was holding him. (It looked) like they was hitting him, or something,” Boyd’s grandmother said of the encounter.
“I said, ‘You are hurting him, hurting him.’ He kept saying, ‘Grandma, they trying to kill me. They trying to kill me, grandma,” she said.
In addition, the police report stated that an officer punched Boyd in the face, twice.
At 3:33 a.m. medics arrived on the scene. In an effort to calm Boyd down, sources say one of the medics gave him haloperidol. According to the police report, officers wrote, “Boyd became so calm that Officer Bowman asked a medic to check the suspect for a pulse.”
At 3:58 a.m., Boyd was taken to a local hospital, WBALTV reports.
Three days later, Boyd was pronounced dead at the hospital. Initially, Boyd’s family believed Boyd died from his injuries sustained during his struggle with the police, who used physical force to restrain him. However, according to an attorney representing the family, “the autopsy is a crucial piece of evidence,” to see whether or not the drug haloperidol, contributed to Boyd’s death.
The cause of death is under investigation.
