Man Dies After Being Tasered And Allegedly Beat By Pasadena Police

Homicide investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are investigating the death of a man who died following an altercation with the police officers he apparently called to his own home. As KTLA reports, an unidentified black man in his 30s was pronounced dead in a Pasadena home early this morning. In the minutes before his death, Pasadena Police officers tasered the man twice, and allegedly wrestled him to the ground.

At around 2 a.m. on Friday morning, officers responded to a call in the 200 block of Orange Grove Avenue, just north of the 210 freeway, according to the L.A. Times. Citing a woman, Shainie Lindsay, who says she is the partner of the man who died, the Times reports how the officers arrived to find the man holding both a knife and a fire extinguisher. Lindsay says the man battles bipolar disorder, and was experiencing symptoms consistent with a manic episode when police arrived.

Police used a Taser on the man twice before he, apparently, dropped the fire extinguisher and barricaded himself behind a closed door. Lindsay says that the officers wrested the door open, at which point the tussle escalated.

"They was wrestling with him, kicking him in the head and beating him with the baton stick," Lindsay said, to KTLA. "Then, after that, they was doing CPR and then he was dead."

According to Capt. Steven Katz, a homicide investigator with the Sheriff's Department, Pasdena Police responded following two 9-1-1 calls from the home. Katz said the second 9-1-1 call suggested a domestic disturbance and narcotic use.

Katz confirmed that a Taser was used twice, but could not confirm whether or not a baton was used. Aside from the man, Katz said there was also a woman and two teenage boys present when Police arrived. In all, six officers responded to the scene.

Lindsay contests that the police department did everything they could to preserve the man's life.

"They know he is on Social Security," Lindsay said to KTLA. "They know he is 5150. This is not the first run-in with him." ("5150" refers to the police code for a call involuntary psychiatric hold.)

"He was not responding because he was not, he was just out of it basically," Lindsay said to City News Service.

Lindsay also told the station that she has four children with the man, and is expecting a fifth. In total, the man is said to have eight children.

Update [4:50]: While officials have yet to identify the man who died, KPCC reports that he was identified as Reginald Thomas by his older sister Antoinette Thomas.