Man who died in deputy's carotid hold wasn't driving stolen vehicle
A Petaluma man who died after a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy placed him in a carotid restraint was mistaken for an armed suspect in a stolen car, officials said Monday.
David Glen Ward, 52, was driving his own vehicle Wednesday when two sheriff’s deputies and two Sebastopol police officers attempted to pull over his vehicle, according to new information from the Santa Rosa Police Department. Ward refused to stop and they pursued his vehicle and surrounded it, before pulling him out of the car from an open driver’s side window, authorities said.
In the struggle, a deputy put an arm around Ward’s neck, which caused him to become unresponsive and later die at the hospital.
Police released a more detailed account Monday of the unusual encounter in an unincorporated area of west Sonoma County, which started in part because Ward had reported the vehicle as stolen days earlier. According to police, an off-duty Santa Rosa detective notified the Sheriff’s Office of a stolen vehicle near Frei and Guerneville roads. The suspect allegedly had a firearm.
Jason Little, a 12-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, was the closest on-duty officer to the area. He said he located the stolen vehicle at 5:54 a.m. and attempted to stop it near Bloomfield and Murray roads, according to the account. This vehicle, it turns out, was not the stolen one.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Petaluma-man-who-died-after-police-carotid-14877227.php
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