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Friday, August 29, 2008

Nonlethal Tactics Blamed in Standoff Death

By Hailey Heinz
Journal Staff Writer
       A man killed during a SWAT standoff with Albuquerque police in March died from a barrage of normally nonlethal tactics, according to an autopsy obtained by the Journal.
    Steven Drussell, 49, had barricaded himself inside the Deluxe Inn and Suites on Central near Tramway on March 4, complaining that a U.S. senator's security guards were stalking him. When police showed up, he waved around two guns and shot one of the department's robots.
    Police say that they tried to get Drussell to surrender using nonlethal force but that he showed an "almost superhuman" resistance to everything they threw at him.
    Which was plenty.
    Police sprayed Drussell with tear gas and pepper spray.
    They shot at him with wooden batons and bean bags.
    They sprayed him with high-pressure water so powerful that it took down a wall.
    And when he was lying nonresponsive on the floor, he was bitten by a dog and shocked with a Taser, according to the autopsy.
    The overnight standoff lasted 10 hours.
    When it was over, Drussell was dead from a combination of "excited delirium" and "prolonged chemical and physical restraint," according to the autopsy. Chronic lung problems and obesity were likely contributing factors, it states.
    Family members said the situation was handled badly by police who were unwilling to negotiate or give Drussell a chance to calm down. They said he suffered from paranoid delusions.
    "As far as we're concerned, he was tortured to death," said Aleatha Ehmer, Drussell's sister who lives in Yakima, Wash.
    APD spokesman John Walsh pointed to the sheer length of the standoff as proof that officers were patient and careful. He said that they repeatedly withdrew to give Drussell a chance to calm down, but that he never did.
    The standoff began about 9 p.m. when Drussell claimed that a security guard had broken his camera. He then told police he wanted the FBI to investigate and told officers to leave, Walsh said at the time.
    Police returned after Drussell claimed that Sen. Pete Domenici's security guards were stalking him, Walsh said. Drussell began waving two guns and became aggressive, breaking the window of his hotel room, according to a police report.
    Officers fired their guns but did not hit the man, who then retreated into the motel bathroom. He never shot directly at police, although he did fire at least six shots that hit the police department's $150,000 tactical robot, Walsh said at the time.
    Walsh said the gunshots posed a danger to officers and anyone else in the vicinity.
    Ehmer said she believes that the high-pressure water ultimately killed her brother, but that isn't confirmed in any documents.
    Officers did think twice about using the tactic.
    In an official statement about the incident, officer B.R. Carr wrote that he consulted an attorney about the possibility of using high-pressure water to tear down the wall between the bathroom and the rest of the motel room. Drussell was aiming his gun through a hole in the bathroom door, and officers felt they would be dangerously exposed if they tried to enter.
    According to the statement, the attorney told police that using water on the wall was "a viable tactic providing we were not attempting to drown the suspect or employ the tactic as a deadly force tool by using unreasonable water pressure."
    According to the statement, officers determined that the 2.5-inch hose would not create deadly force.
    Another official statement, this one by officer I. Varela, describes the hose being trained on Drussell, "making it difficult for him to stand."
    The autopsy indicates that, after police finally entered the motel room, they found Drussell unresponsive on the floor. He was bitten on the shoulder by a police dog and did not respond. He was then shocked by a Taser, and again he did not respond.
    Officers secured his hands and medics prepared to resuscitate him, but someone noticed electrical discharges emanating from exposed wiring, so the room was evacuated.
    When medics returned, they were unable to resuscitate Drussell.
    According to the autopsy, staff at OMI interviewed Drussell's primary care physician, who confirmed that he "had a history of paranoid and persecutory delusions (including) ... being clandestinely injected with drugs, parasites and other monitoring and control devices." The doctor said Drussell "continually picked and gouged his skin, attempting to remove the materials he believed to be implanted in him."
    Ehmer said her brother was a soil geologist who had been living in Silver City but was planning a move to Albuquerque. He was staying in the motel while looking for a permanent home, she said.
    One violent charge shows up in Drussell's background.
    In 2007, he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Silver City, according to court records. The charge was dismissed in November 2007. His sister said it stemmed from allegations that Drussell pointed a gun at someone but didn't fire.