Pubdate: Sat, 12 Nov 2005
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Section: Pg B-3
Copyright: 2005 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer

MAN WHO DIED DURING ARREST CHOKED ON DRUGS, POLICE SAY

Oakland police said Friday a man who died during his arrest 
apparently had choked to death after swallowing drugs to conceal them 
from officers.

Still, the death of Patrick Gaston in his West Oakland neighborhood 
Thursday night has inflamed a community already mistrustful of police 
in the wake of the Riders scandal, in which a band of police officers 
is said to have harassed people and planted drugs to make arrests.

Gaston, 34, died near Eighth and Campbell streets after a struggle 
with police who arrested him during a stakeout in an area near the 
Campbell Village housing project known for drug dealing.

Police officials remained tight-lipped about the death Friday and 
referred questions to a department spokesman who did not return phone 
calls or e-mails from The Chronicle.

But three knowledgeable police sources, speaking anonymously because 
all media inquiries were to be answered by the chief's office, said 
Gaston apparently had choked to death after swallowing what 
investigators believe were plastic packages containing heroin. The 
sources said paramedics and officers who tried to revive Gaston had 
found several small packages lodged in his throat and few bruises on his body.

The case is under investigation by the homicide squad, the police 
internal affairs division and the district attorney's office. The 
Alameda County coroner's office is trying to determine exactly how Gaston died.

Several people told The Chronicle Friday that officers had thrown 
Gaston to the ground and beaten him though he offered no resistance.

"I saw the police grab him, pull him off his bicycle and beat him," 
said Clara Simpson, a volunteer in a nearby church-run thrift shop. 
"They beat him. They choked him. I didn't see him fight back at all."

Seth Robinson gave a similar account of the incident, in which Gaston 
apparently lost consciousness during his arrest.

"It was straight up police brutality," Robinson said. "There was no 
way that they needed to be that rough with him, even if he was 
carrying something."

On Friday evening several dozen people gathered around an impromptu 
shrine dedicated to Gaston. The curbside shrine included candles, 
teddy bears and other stuffed animals. There were dozens of written 
tributes to Gaston, who grew up in the area, on cards and placards. 
Other notes denounced the police.

Wardell Rogers was among several people at the shrine who compared 
the incident to the Riders case, in which four police officers were 
fired and charged with falsely arresting people, planting drugs and 
writing false reports in West Oakland in 1999.

The criminal case, which deeply damaged the department's reputation 
in the city, was dismissed in June after two mistrials. But the city 
paid $10.5 million to settle a civil case that also left the Oakland 
Police Department under a court-ordered consent decree.
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