Posted at 12:09 p.m., Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Autopsy results awaited in death of man
Advertiser Staff and News Services
An autopsy was performed today on a 24-year-old man who died Sunday night at Wahiawa General Hospital after he was arrested by police at Kipapa Park in Mililani after allegedly threatening people with a knife.Police suspect the death was drug-related but were awaiting the autopsy findings.
Police reportedly recovered two knives at the park. The man was being restrained by witnesses when police arrived at 7:30 p.m.
Homicide investigators were checking on reports that the man was struck with bats in order to restrain him.
The man had disrupted a girls' softball tournament and was subdued by about a dozen coaches and parents, including two off-duty police officers, witnesses said. One of the officers and another person hit the 24-year-old man with baseball bats while disarming him, the witnesses said.
The man became unconscious on the way to the police station in Wahiawa, police said. He was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
One of the off-duty officers told television station KHON that he believed reasonable force had been used.
Barnabas Sotelo, a coach at the tournament, said the man had been foaming at the mouth while waving the knife, punching parked cars and mentioning Bible verses.
Before the man was disarmed, he went up to a woman and cut a box of trophies she was carrying, Sotelo said.
Advertiser staff writer Rod Ohira and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
