New autopsy: man in police struggle died of asphyxiation
BALTIMORE — An independent autopsy on a man who had a fatal encounter with Baltimore police says he died of asphyxiation while being restrained, not of a heart condition as the state’s autopsy found.
Tyrone West, 44, died after a struggle with police following a July 2013 traffic stop. The Maryland Office of the Medical Examiner had ruled that he died of a heart condition in extremely hot weather.
His sister, Tawanda Jones, who holds a weekly vigil seeking justice in West’s death, commissioned the new autopsy. Jones has urged Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to reopen the case, but Mosby has said that without new evidence, she won’t.
West, who is African-American, died after being arrested on July 18, 2013. Police said they pulled the man over for backing down a street into an intersection. After officers asked West to get out of the car and sit on the curb, they spotted a bulge in one of his socks and suspected drugs, police have said.