TUCSON, Ariz. -One of the Tucson Police Officers involved in the in-custody death of Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician. Three officers resigned as TPD was about to fire them for failing to recognize Ingram-Lopez was in medical distress. Investigators say they held him handcuffed and on the ground for about 14 minutes.
Investigators say the grandmother of Carlos Adrian Ingram Lopez called police when her grandson took off his clothes and started shouting about hallucinations. Officers found him naked in a garage. They handcuffed him, covered him with a blanket, held him down but did not use any weapons or dangerous neck holds.
An autopsy showed the man had cocaine in his system and had a heart condition.
A discipline report says officers kept Ingram-Lopez on the ground and ignored his labored breathing and pleas for water. He went unresponsive and died.
Police were about to fire Officers Jonathan Jackson, Samuel Routledge and Ryan Starbuck when the three resigned. The case against them says they had been trained repeatedly on how people in a state of what’s called excited delirium are at medical risk but failed to take steps to reduce that risk.
The report noted Ryan Starbuck had more extensive medical training than the other two. He is a licenced Emergency Medical Technician. The Arizona Health Department shows an EMT licence for a Ryan Starbuck still active. TPD says Starbuck has been an EMT for 14 years.
Police body cameras show, when other officers arrived, they recognized Ingram-Lopez was in medical distress, and had him re-positioned to allow better breathing. Officers called an ambulance and administered an antidote for opioid overdose but that drug does not work on cocaine. Ambulance EMT’s pronounced Ingram Lopez dead.
