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MEDICAL
EXAMINER: IN-CUSTODY DEATH RESULT OF
ASPHYXIA and COCAINE/ALCOHOL INTOXICATION
A 34-year-old Tampa man
who died shortly after fighting briefly but violently with Clearwater
Police in early April expired as the result of "asphyxia,"
according to an autopsy performed by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical
Examiner's Office.
The autopsy report also
listed cocaine and alcohol intoxication as "contributory conditions"
in the death of THOMAS CLINT TIPTON (10-13-71), of 10028 Colonnade
Drive in Tampa. The report stated that the six-foot, 270 lb. Tipton's
blood-alcohol level was .227 (Florida law presumes a person to be
intoxicated at .08). The Medical Examiner also determined Tipton
had used cocaine sometime that day.
The three Patrol Officers
involved in the April 5, 2006 arrest were found by a Clearwater
Police Department In-Custody Death Review Board to have acted in
compliance with all department Policies and Procedures during the
encounter with Tipton, and have returned to their policing assignments.
The Review Board heard
from investigators with the department's Criminal Investigations
Division and the Office of Professional Standards, who determined:
Tipton chartered a limousine
shortly after noon on April 5 to take about nine of his male co-workers
and him from Tampa to Clearwater Beach as part of a work-related,
post-seminar day at the beach.
They stopped along the
way to purchase beer, and spent most of the day and evening at a
Clearwater Beach gulf-front restaurant where Tipton used his credit
card to pay more than $625 for alcoholic beverages. The group of
men were supposed to leave in the limo at 7 p.m., but they missed
the appointment with the vehicle and its driver, staying at the
establishment until about 11 p.m.
The men, accompanied
by several out-of-state visitors they'd met in the restaurant, left
the restaurant walking eastward a block on Rockaway Street, and
then south on Mandalay Avenue, as they discussed various plans for
the rest of the night's activities.
According to interviews
with all those involved, Tipton - dressed in shorts, sandals, a
blue shirt and a hat - was last seen by them at the intersection
of Mandalay and Ambler Street, about two blocks walking distance
from the restaurant.
The next time Tipton
was seen, he was dressed only in his shorts, and was covered with
wounds - largely superficial.
Clearwater Police were
called to the Tropic Isle Motel at 23 Rockaway Street - two buildings
east of the restaurant where Tipton had spent the day - at 11:30
p.m. that Wednesday, after two occupants called to report a partially
dressed man acting violently, knocking over patio furniture and
breaking jalousie windows in the courtyard of the small lodging
establishment.
When Officers arrived,
they found Tipton bleeding from numerous wounds.
Tipton was initially
receptive to the Police Officers' questions and directions, providing
them his identification and sitting, as directed, in a chair. It
was at this time that one Officer determined by radio Tipton had
no outstanding warrants for his arrest, and even called for a taxi
cab to take Tipton home.
In addition to the Officers
who were dealing with Tipton, a number of independent civilian witnesses
told Investigators they heard the muscular man tell the Officers
he'd been a fight shortly before they arrived.
Tipton then became sarcastic
and combative; he stood up, threw a wood patio table at an Officer
and retreated to a confined area inside the courtyard, within the
root system of a banyan tree. He refused to comply with numerous
repeated commands. It was at this point that a Police Sergeant arrived
and - considering the man's size and combative attitude and the
confined space in which he had placed himself - directed a Patrol
Officer to use his department-issued Taser to subdue and arrest
Tipton for the assault on a Police Officer.
The Officer fired the
26-watt Taser, and its two wire-carrying barbs hit Tipton in the
torso and his pants; the application seemed to have little effect
on Tipton, who again threatened the Officers. The Taser was used
a second time, and Tipton allowed the Officers to handcuff his hands
behind his back.
The Officers brought
Tipton to his feet and disconnected the Taser's wires and summoned
Clearwater Fire Department paramedics to examine Tipton, in accordance
with department policy after using a Taser. But despite being restrained,
Tipton began suddenly flailing, kicking and fighting in an enraged
manner, and he and the Officers fell to the ground as Police tried
to control the aggressive prisoner.
Several times Tipton
relaxed and submitted to the Officers' commands, but then became
aggressive and combative again. During the struggle on the ground,
a second Taser was employed at least twice to administer close-combat
"pain compliance" by contact rather than through barbs,
but it's unclear if the Taser's tip ever made contact with Tipton's
body, since both witnesses and Officers said the applications had
no effect on the furiously fighting man.
The Medical Examiner's
autopsy report made no mention of a Taser.
Ultimately - and the
physical encounter lasted just minutes - Tipton went limp. Paramedics,
already summoned, had arrived and treated Tipton briefly before
taking him to Morton Plant Hospital where he was pronounced dead
at 12:28 a.m. Thursday.
As investigators retraced
Tipton's movements on Clearwater Beach prior to his encounter with
Police, they found his hat and shirt; his cellular telephone was
later located by others beneath a thorny bougainvillea plant. Detectives
were unable to establish when Tipton ingested the cocaine or the
marijuana that was found in his body, although toxicology reports
indicate the marijuana was smoked shortly before his encounter with
police.
Neither his co-workers
nor any of the visitors with whom his group met up that afternoon
saw Tipton get in a fight that night, although he told one of the
vacationers just before they parted that he wasn't going to join
them at a bar because "I always get into fights."
This is the extent of
information available regarding this case. For additional details,
please contact Public Information Officer Wayne Shelor at 727-562-4333.
/s/
SID KLEIN
Chief of Police
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