A man died after experiencing a medical emergency early Saturday morning after authorities said he resisted arrest by police officers responding to a 911 call at a Rialto residence.
At 12:11 a.m. on Saturday, a caller told the Rialto Police Department that a man known to the caller was attempting to break down their door in the 500 Block of South Fillmore Avenue. The caller said the man was completely nude and under the influence of alcohol and narcotics, according to a Rialto police news release.
When officers arrived at the scene they found the man inside the home, lying face down and partially nude, with shorts below his buttocks.
The man resisted and groaned loudly when officers tried to detain him, said Sgt. Richard Royce, a spokesperson for the Rialto Police Department.
After approximately two minutes, officers noticed the man lost consciousness and stopped breathing, and began attempting life-saving measures including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the use of an automated external defibrillator and the administration of the opioid overdose reversal drug Naloxone, Royce said.
Paramedics, who were called by officers when they were en route to the scene, arrived minutes later and transported the man to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:16 a.m.
Officers used a “little bit of force” when attempting to detain the man and put his hands behind his back, but did not use any punches, strikes or Tasers, Royce said. The man was in the process of being handcuffed by officers, but Royce said he was “not fully cuffed.”
The man’s identity was being withheld pending next of kin notification. Police did say he was a 36-year-old Rialto resident.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is assisting the ongoing investigation.
