Posted on 05/23/2003 6:21:41 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Man dies following arrest
By Juliette Rule Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE – A local man died Wednesday afternoon, a week after local police arrested him using a restraint called a body wrap.
Mike Dick said he knows little about the circumstances surrounding his younger brother’s arrest, but he added that Bob Dick, 45, hadn’t been coping well with life’s stresses.
The family decided to disconnect Bob Dick from life support earlier this week. He died about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Police say Bob Dick ran into traffic about 9 p.m. on May 13, waving a gun, yelling and frightening passersby, a press release says.
He grabbed a car’s rear tire and began chewing on it, his brother said, citing a police record officers gave him.
Once on the scene, officers tried to restrain Bob Dick with a body wrap, which immobilizes suspects’ legs, the release says.
When that happened, Bob Dick stopped breathing and lost consciousness, it adds.
On May 13, Cheyenne police requested that the Division of Criminal Investigation conduct an independent query of the event.
Celeste Ebell, 21, was in a car at the intersection of Sixth Street and Carey Avenue when Bob Dick ran into traffic.
“We thought he was just crossing the street,” she said, describing him as a “very hallucinogenic” man who “needed to be restrained.”
He said he needed help when he screamed at the women. He didn’t appear to be drunk, and he wasn’t acting violently, she said.
Driving away, Ebell and a classmate decided to go back to see if they could help the obviously delusional man, she said.
Ebell said she watched police make the arrest, adding that they didn’t appear to use excessive force.
She and her friend didn’t see a gun, but other witnesses might have, she added.
It appeared to Ebell that Bob Dick was running from someone carrying a gun.
“He believed he was trying to save someone,” she said.
Beyond the little bit of information Mike Dick has received, he and the two other Dick siblings don’t know much.
“I don’t even know what to do,” he said. “We don’t know anything to be angry about or anyone to be angry at. It’s tough to lose a brother.”
Bob Dick worked as a part-time carpenter and had been drinking heavily since his girlfriend died last year, his brother said.
“He was all messed up,” Mike Dick added.
It had been a particularly rough couple of days for Bob Dick, who was arrested May 12 for public intoxication, police records show.
Earlier on May 13, he was arrested for unlawful entry when police caught him allegedly trying to break into a U-haul truck in the 700 block of Central Avenue.
On that arrest record, Bob Dick is listed as a transient, Mike Dick said, noting he picked up his brother’s wallet from police.
The Dick children were raised in Sterling, Ill. Two other siblings live in Pennsylvania. They plan to bury their brother in Pennsylvania.
If he had a gun, the cops were more than justified in putting the restraint on him.
Leni
Leni
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.