Suspect puts drugs in his mouth; cop breaks his neck

Suspect puts drugs in his mouth; cop breaks his neck

rawstory.com

A 42-year-old Louisiana man has died, apparently of a broken neck, after being pulled over by a police deputy.

A dash cam video shows Deputy Chris Sturdivant of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office with his arms around Adam Stogner’s neck after the officer suspected the man of putting a small quantity of drugs into his mouth.

Stogner died along Interstate 12. Preliminary results from the coroner show that Stogner died from “severe coronary artery disease, an enlarged heart, and a fracture of the hyoid bone in his neck.”

(visit the link for the full news article)

Okay, this one I am going to leave up to each viewer to decide upon. Watch the video clip and decide for yourself...

It appears this cop was following usual protocol in trying to get the suspect to spit out the drugs? Looks like he sort of has him in a choke hold though, and my suspiscion is that he may have broken the guys neck inadvertantly as they both crashed to the ground.

Another one of those tragic situations that you hate to see, no matter what the outcome is.





rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 13-7-2009 by DimensionalDetective]

The war on drugs is totally out of control and only profits the criminals- anybody who profits from the war on drugs... Police, drug dealers, anybody who has a direct interest or stake in the war on drugs, prison investors, prison labor corporations, kingpins...drug czars (Are 'drug czars' CIA drug lords or what?)... etc.

Who knows if this guy had kids or pets or dependents who depended on him, and now he's gone because of the war on drugs.

There are some real turds running this world.

Originally posted by star in a jar

Who knows if this guy had kids or pets or dependents who depended on him, and now he's gone because of the war on drugs.

If he did have people who depended on him, he didn't seem to take the responsibility very seriously.

I think it's about time we passed a law that an officer cannot touch you at all unless you are or are attempting to directly harm the officer or another person, or are trying to flee. No tazers, no pepper spray, no chokeholds.

There is absolutely no reason for the police to even touch you otherwise. It's an invasion of privacy, a violation of decency and all too often ends up with people getting hurt, or worse, dying.

Was this person on drugs? Yes. Was he going to harm anyone other than himself? No. Did he deserve to die?

I don't think I need to answer that one.

These people are ABUSING their power. Its time we put the 'protect' back in 'protect and serve'.

Is it not easier to arrest the person and take a pee sample or blood test at some point, rather than break his neck?

Preliminary results from the coroner show that Stogner died from “severe coronary artery disease, an enlarged heart, and a fracture of the hyoid bone in his neck.”

That sounds to me like the coroner is trying to cover things up.

The presence of a hyoid bone fracture is a generally accepted indication of death by violent strangulation. There's not a lot of other ways to fracture that bone.

CAD and an enlarged heart are existing conditions, but to include them in the cause of death in this case is quite suspicious. It's like saying he died from CAD, and enlarged heart, and a gunshot wound to the chest.

Makes no sense.



[edit on 13-7-2009 by vox2442]

It's a bit of a misnomer to say "broke his neck" if the spine was uninjured. The hyoid, while important, will not necessarily kill a person if broken. The bone itself might fracture, but it won't disappear--it will still be attached to the muscles and holding them in position. Also, the muscles attached to this bone function more in tongue movement and speech than breathing.

Generally the term "broken neck" refers to the part of the spine that runs through the neck. It is this part of the spine that breaks in a hanging, resulting in a death, thus the term "broken neck".

This all being said, the location and size of the hyoid makes it unlikely to fracture.

Moral of story: Don't put drugs into your mouth in a attempt to hide them.

The bald guy in the video has it correct..he wasnt killed,look it up in Websters if you think so..

I do however think it was a very bad choice by the officer to not stop protocall..it got very out of hand and should have ceased before any physical injury was inccured..

reply to post by drwizardphd


Couldn't agree more. I'm in UK.

They may "protect and serve", but it certainly doesn't seem to be the public that gets their service or protection. Most police officers these days are nothing more than Govt authorised "payroll thugs.

Originally posted by trace_the_truth
If he did have people who depended on him, he didn't seem to take the responsibility very seriously.

You're right. He should have been a product of our Louisiana public education system, gone onto welfare, and produced a lot of children while working a minimum wage job.

What on earth was he thinking?

Since when is it even reasonable for such a minor offense for a cop to put someone in a choke hold and even run the risk of breaking someone's neck for a minor offense.

The only ones who truly live off the 'War On Drugs" are the damned lawyers!
They make the laws, they get payed. They fight both sides of the argument they made, and then they get payed. They help send folks to prison, and they get payed. They try to get folks out of jail, And they get payed again!

Damned lawyers

Zindo

I'm not trying to be an advocate for abusive police. I have had my fair share of run-ins with em. In watching the video this incident looks like he was just reacting to the situation. The guy probably swallowed his stash before the officer got to the vehicle if thats what he planned on doing in the first place.LOL

All I wanna know is, who would the ATS members blame if this idiot swallowed his meth to hide it from the officer. Then the officer LEGALLY has to go get a warrant for the drugs, take him to the hospital to get the mans stomach pumped, and in the mean time, this yahoo dies from the lethal amount of drugs HE chose to swallow?

I already know...it would STILL be the cops fault and most of you would figure out a way to blame the police for NOT stopping him, etc....its always a catch 22 with people who have no idea.

Bottom line...he should of MANNED up and turned over the drugs and took his punishment. Instead HE (thats right, only HE) made a bad choice to try and swallow it. All could of been avoided by the suspect...so sorry, hes NOT a victim.

I was under the impression it is illegal for the police (in my area at least) to use choke holds and certain restraining techniques on a suspect due to the risk of serious injury.

reply to post by rcwj75


Hey rcwj: Your professional opinion---You think that broken bone may have happened in the fall? It didn't look like that choke was anything devastating, but I'm just wondering if maybe the impact of the fall made them land weird, and the bone may have broken when they hit the ground?

reply to post by trace_the_truth
A lot of people abuse drugs in some way, even me- I use a soft drug and I have a dependent, a cat that would otherwise be at a shelter...

There are a lot of hopeless alcoholics out there who do bad things to children- from pushing them to raping them, entire groups of drunken young guys and ladies fighting each other and other people on streets, a family wailing over the body of their child who had been hit by a drunk driver, an aquarium full of fish getting dumped down the toilet by a mover cleaning out the apartment of a guy who got killed because he was drinking and driving when his car got scissor-tackled by 2 big trucks at an intersection after running a red light.

Yet, alcohol is legal and drugs, even some that could treat alcoholism are illegal or illegal to grow to process as drugs because of the FDA and its stakeholders say their drugs are the only correct drugs.

Those who are wealthy because of the current system, will lose BIG time if drugs are ever legalized.

Have you even heard of a drug dealer who wanted to legalize drugs? No, because even they, too, will lose out.

The booze brewers would go out of jobs... The police will have to start chasing after pedophiles... People would start having greater spiritual or mental connections- The after-effect of legalization will be huge, and kings WILL fall.

The current system is set up to keep humanity at a certain level of savagery to create an atmosphere of fear and violence for the purposes of profit and control.

I mean... If the law was put into the people's hands, would we even allow pedophiles or serious criminals to exist, to let them live?

We did not make the current system as it is, the government set up the current system as it is.

How about this, when the cop puts you up against the car and tells you to spit out the drugs, you don't struggle with him? When he has you in a choke hold, in the name of self preservation, you should probably stop struggling and just open your mouth.

Crazy world I know, but I hear struggling with the cops is a good way to get yourself injured these days, who'da thunk it?

It is like people think cops can't get killed on the job or something.

"A man shouldn't get killed during a minor traffic stop."
A cop shouldn't get killed or injured during a minor traffic stop, but how often does it happen?

Don't be so quick to judge if you haven't walked a mile in their shoes cause it is a whole different world.

Pull a guy over, maybe he pulls out a gun and shoots you, maybe its just some regular joe on his way to work. You don't know, you CAN'T know, but you can get killed for giving the guy enough rope to hang you with it. That is why you don't get much slack from cops, because if you are a criminal, that could get the cop killed.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective

Im not entirely sure the officer intended to that.. It seems to appear as though he got caught up in the heat of the moment and ended up harming the guy. But stiill a man died, so there should be action to punish the cop in some form.