The death of Ronald Singleton, a man who struggled while being detained by the New York Police Department, has been ruled as a homicide.
Singleton went into cardiac arrest on his way to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, after which his ambulance was rerouted to a closer hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival.
A probe has been launched into the NYPD following the incident and the police department is cooperating with the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The cause of death was ruled as "physical restraint by police during excited delirium due to acute phencyclidine (PCP) intoxication," said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.
Singleton was taken into custody July 13 after a cab driver flagged down a police officer. The cab driver said that Singleton was "acting overly irate and irrational, cursing and screaming and causing alarm."
After Singleton got out of the cab, he "became combative with the officer, trying to fight with him," said the police in a statement.
Unlike the case of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a choke hold by police only four days after Singleton's death, the case largely went unnoticed by the media. Despite this, the ruling Friday, Aug. 29, has made the case yet another death caused by police in the past few months.
Eric Garner was a 42-year-old father of six who suffered from asthma. In an amateur video captured of the event, Garner can be heard shouting "I can't breathe!" Following the event, the officer in question was stripped of his gun and badge. To further complicate matters, the police banned putting someone in a choke hold over 20 years ago, in 1993.
The cause of Garner's death was "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police," says Bolcer. The death was ruled as a homicide.
The Staten Island district attorney is assembling a grand jury to hear evidence for the Eric Garner case next month.
While no disciplinary action has been taken against the police officer involved in the incident with Ronald Singleton, the probe by the Internal Affairs Bureau will likely change that.
Another police-related death took place in Ferguson on Aug. 9 after Michael Brown was shot and killed by police. While police said that Brown was shot after physically assaulting the police officer, several eyewitnesses have said that Brown was shot while his hands were up.
All three cases have fueled protests against law enforcement's use of deadly force.
