PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man will be taken off life support today, his uncle said, five days after the man went into cardiac arrest while being subdued by Port Angeles police officers responding to a 9-1-1 domestic violence call.
Jerry L. Norris, 40, was declared legally brain dead Wednesday, his uncle, Rick Fields of Reno, Nev., said late Wednesday afternoon.
“They found he had brain swell that took his life,” Fields said, adding that the combative behavior that led police to subdue his nephew Saturday evening “was way out of character” for Norris.
‘Brain swell’
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident, Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said.
“We do that to avoid a conflict of interest,” Gallagher said.
“All indications are that the police performed professionally within their training and within policy.”
The details of the Sheriff’s Department investigation will be turned over to the Port Angeles Police Department for its review, county Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said, adding that he did not know when it would be completed.
‘Up to the doctors’
“It’s up to the doctors on what they decide to do,” he said.
Cameron said the Sheriff’s Department’s report eventually will be made available to the public.
“All the facts indicate he went into cardiac arrest,” Port Angeles Deputy Chief Brian Smith said.
“There is no evidence that anything we did caused this medical event.”
Norris’ confrontation with police began after police dispatch received a 9-1-1 call at 7:46 p.m. Saturday.
Gallagher said Norris had allegedly assaulted a man and a woman in an apartment in the 1000 block of West 18th Street.
The caller, one of the alleged victims, described Norris as “out of control,” Gallagher said.
Norris’ driver’s license says he weighs 250 pounds and is 5-foot-10-inches tall, though officers were told he weighs more than 300 pounds, Smith said.
“We were in a mandatory arrest situation,” Smith said.
Three officers arrived at the apartment within five minutes of the call, Smith said.
A fourth police officer, a Border Patrol officer and Port Angeles Fire Department medical personnel also went to the apartment.
Norris actively resisted and verbalized that resistance “almost immediately” upon being confronted by police, Smith said.
Scuffled with officers
Norris scuffled with three of the officers in what was a hallway or a tiny room, Smith said.
Police did not deploy Tasers, pepper spray or weapons in subduing Norris, Gallagher said.
“It was strictly a wrestling match to get the guy handcuffed,” Gallagher said.
While Norris was brought to the floor and handcuffed, he was spitting at police, Gallagher said.
The officers put a spit shield, or “spit hood,” over Norris’ head to prevent the transfer of bodily fluids to police, Gallagher said.
A spit shield is a hood that consists of a fabric mesh top with a cloth lower portion that covers the mouth.
The $4.95 shield used by Port Angeles police is secured by extending two narrow straps attached to the front bottom of the hood under the armpits, threading the straps through loops on the back bottom corners of the hood, and tieing the straps to the loops.
Instructions for the hood’s use include the warning: “Improper use can result in serious injury or death due to asphyxiation, suffocation or drowning in one’s own fluids.”
Smith described it as “a loose-fitting device that allows for normal exchange of air and breathing.”
Lost consciousness
While Norris was lying on his stomach, he rapidly lost consciousness, stopped breathing and lost his pulse, Smith said.
Officers removed the hood and handcuffs, turned Norris over and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation — or CPR.
“What revived him was a combination of CPR, managing his airway, ventilating him and also the paramedics administering advanced life support,” Smith said.
Norris was taken to the hospital, arriving at 8:50 p.m., an hour after police were called.
Fields said doctors were “perplexed” by what happened to his nephew.
“They feel like there was a time period of 20 to 30 minutes that he was oxygen-deprived because the brain swelled, and that created a heart attack in the middle of what was going on . . . We are all grieving.”
At the time of the incident, Norris was himself grieving over the sudden death of a 37-year-old cousin and had not slept for six days, Fields said.
“We know this wasn’t Jerry,” he said.
“There are so many unanswered things.”
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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
