Vallejo police use Taser on man who later dies

(06-17) 15:33 PDT VALLEJO --

A 47-year-old Vallejo man who fought with police trying to arrest him for assaulting an elderly neighbor, then died after officers shocked him with Tasers, had cocaine in his system that probably contributed to his death, authorities said Wednesday.

Michael White died Tuesday, apparently as a result of "excited delirium" caused by cocaine and extreme agitation while struggling with officers, said Vallejo police Lt. Abel Tenorio, citing a coroner's autopsy.

The Solano County coroner's office, however, has not finalized White's cause of death pending the results of toxicology tests.

White's relatives believe police used excessive force and questioned why they weren't notified for hours about his death.

White's cousin Teri Carlyle-Taylor said the family knew nothing about what happened until 1 a.m. Wednesday, when a sheriff's deputy showed up at her grandmother's home to break the news. The deputy said only that White had been taking drugs and made no mention of the police confrontation or the use of Tasers, she said.

"I don't care if he was acting strangely, it's no reason to Taser him," Carlyle-Taylor said Wednesday. "He should not have been killed."

The incident began when an elderly woman who lives at the Vallejo Mobile Estates on San Marcus Way called police at 4:24 p.m. Tuesday to report that White, her neighbor from across the street, had assaulted her at her front door, Tenorio said.

She managed to "escape his grasp" and called 911, police said. White retreated to his home.

When officers arrived, the woman told them that White was "violent and delusional," Tenorio said. White refused to cooperate with officers and began struggling with them, even as he ingested "suspected narcotics," Tenorio said.

Officers shocked White with Tasers, but they had no effect, police said. He was subdued within a few minutes but fought with paramedics as he was taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vallejo, Tenorio said. He died at the hospital.

The incident is under investigation by police and the Solano County district attorney's office.

Tenorio said the coroner reported that White's death appeared to be the result of excited delirium. The condition is a complication of cocaine abuse marked by bizarre actions or speech, aggressive behavior and elevated body temperature.

The use of Tasers to subdue aggressive suspects has been questioned by some critics of the electric stun guns. They assert that Tasers have been implicated in as many as 400 deaths nationwide since 2001, something the Arizona manufacturer disputes.

Taser International, however, recently advised police that they should fire the devices at a suspect's back or at the pelvis and below, not at the chest, because of what the company described as a slight chance that a Taser jolt could cause a fatal heart attack.

White had an extensive criminal history, including assaults on police, Tenorio said. Carlyle-Taylor, however, said she wanted her cousin to be remembered as a "man who loved to laugh and loved his family."

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle