Tulsa police and relatives of a man who died late Wednesday while in police custody offered differing versions of the chain of events that preceded his death.
But both police and relatives will have to await the results of an autopsy by the state Medical Examiner's Office, which will determine the cause and manner of Jerard M. Drew's death.
Drew, 38, who was wearing only boxer shorts when he died, had recently been prescribed prescription pain and anti-inflammatory drugs and might have been drinking alcohol Wednesday, but he was otherwise healthy, relatives said.
Police said Drew became unresponsive while they were trying to put leg shackles on him after he was pepper-sprayed but continued to resist officers' attempts to detain him.
The man was cursing and kicking at officers, at which time the officers decided to put leg shackles on him "to keep him from hurting officers or hurting himself," police spokesman Officer Leland Ashley said.
Drew's mother, Ruth Woodfork, said officers were chatting and laughing when she came upon them and her son, who was lying face-down and handcuffed on the grassy north side of the road in the 2700 block of West Edison Street.
Ashley said officers performed CPR until an ambulance arrived and took Drew to St. John Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:55 p.m.
Ashley said there was no indication that excessive force was used but that homicide detectives will investigate.
Six officers — Jeff Dosser, Jason Kelley, Jay Chiarito-Mazzarella, Naresh Persaud, Herbert Hardman and Sgt. Mike Williams — were placed on restrictive duty as a routine matter, he said.
Ashley denied a request for a copy of the police report, saying such reports are not public documents.
Ashley said Dosser was on patrol when he reported seeing a man, wearing only boxer shorts, running in the 2700 block of West Edison Street just before 10 p.m.
The man fled, and the officer caught up with him in a drainage culvert just north of Edison, Ashley said.
The officer pepper-sprayed the man when he "clenched his fist in a menacing manner as if to punch the officer," he said.
The officer reported that the spray appeared to have very little effect on the man.
By this time, two more officers had arrived and helped detain Drew, Ashley said.
Woodfork said she could hear her son yelling from a block away.
"I could hear him screaming, 'Stop kicking me! Stop kicking me!' " she said.
By the time Woodfork made it to her son, he was unresponsive, she said.
"I'm not holding a grudge against anybody, because that's not God's will, but I think his life was taken before it should have been," Woodfork said.
"He's had his run-ins with the law, but he was changing his life," she said.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections records indicate that Drew had convictions for possession of a stolen vehicle, unlawful possession of a controlled drug, false impersonation and escape.
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