Contra Costa Times
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
By Karl Fischer

SAN PABLO – Police searching for a missing Vallejo woman found her car parked with a body in it and arrested a man who ran away from it when they tried to approach him.

Although the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office deferred comment to Vallejo police, who did not return calls, friends and family members of 27-year-old Alicia Loza confirmed that her body was in the car found parked on the 2000 block of Stanton Avenue.

Sheriff’s deputies, San Pablo and Richmond police arrested 33-year-old Aukusitino Afamasaga in the back yard of a house on the 1900 block of Crucero Avenue about 4:40 p.m., carrying him off the property in the Wrap, a restraining leg wrap.

“He beat her up badly, and she pressed charges,” said Lori Orr, Loza’s supervisor at a Walnut Creek medical billing company. “From what I’ve been told, it sounds like he made her his first order of business” after his recent prison release.

Earlier Tuesday, Vallejo police alerted local law enforcement agencies to look for Loza’s 2000 Toyota Solara in connection with her possible abduction.

Loza’s family told police Afamasaga threatened to hurt her last week. Records show both have ties to West Contra Costa County.

A resident on Stanton flagged down a deputy about 4:10 p.m. to report that Afamasaga was in the area, sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee said. The deputy soon spotted the car parked in front of an apartment building.

“As the deputy pulled behind, the individual fled on foot,” Lee said. The deputy quickly noticed a woman’s body in the passenger seat.

Afamasaga was arrested on suspicion of parole violations, Lee said. Police would not comment on his criminal history, but Orr said he was recently paroled from state prison for a domestic violence conviction involving Loza.

The Contra Costa Coroner’s Office did not identify the body Tuesday night.

Orr last saw Loza when she left work about 5:30 p.m. Friday. She said that she and Loza’s family reported her missing to several law enforcement agencies over the weekend, including Vallejo and Richmond police.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, December 14, 2003

Woman Arrested in Toy Store Melee

A woman was arrested outside a popular Berkley toy store Thursday after she hit a customer in the face with a box of Legos, shoved a second shopper and kicked a third, police said Saturday.

Berkeley Police Officer Kevin Schofield said officers caught up with the woman, whom they identified as Tonita Wiemels, 39, after she locked herself in her car outside Mr. Mopps' Children's Books and Toys at 1405 Martin Luther King. Jr. Way.

Weimels ignored numerous police demands that she get out of the car, a 1995 Ford Taurus, Schofield said. She tried to drive away, hitting one officer in the leg with the car, and endangered two others by steering toward them, he added.

Police eventually smashed the driver's side window, removed Weimels from the car and restrained her in a Velcro-fastened nylon sheet called "The WRAP," Schofield said.

Police do not know what led to the original altercation inside the store, he said.

Weimels was booked into Berkeley city jail on two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two misdemeanor counts of battery, and failing to yield to an officer, Schofield said.

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Ontario Police College
Defensive Tactics Training Section

Guest Article By:

Chris Lawrence
Team Leader

SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED DEATHS - BEYOND POSITIONAL ASPHYXIA

In light of recent events we would like to share with you information that will assist patrol officers and investigators in better understanding the issues around subjects who suddenly and unexpectedly die while involved in an altercation with police and or medical/rescue personnel.

The circumstances that surround such an event have been well documented. Police and ambulance personnel are called to a location where a subject is acting in a bizarre manner. The subject is located and attempts to deal with him rationally do not go well. Either the subject begins to attack the officers or the subject attempts to flee. Force is used to control the subject but the struggle becomes substantial.

Several officers are involved and in spite of their number, collective strength and experience, they have great difficulty gaining control of the subject. Shortly after establishing control, the subject is found to be unresponsive. Resuscitation attempts are unsuccessful. Death may occur at the scene, in the ambulance, in the Emergency department or even several days later.

The public and the media then place police under great scrutiny. The pressure rises and can become relentless. Officers are placed on administrative leave and community relations can become tense indeed.

In order for police officers to effectively deal with an issue they must first understand it. Law enforcement officers cannot understand a problem if explanations are either unavailable or if the use of technical jargon precludes comprehension. This misunderstanding is not an accident. As reported by Dr. Wanda Mohr, a noted expert on psychiatric patient restraint and her colleagues Dr. Theodore Petit, a psychiatrist and Dr. Brian Mohr, a cardiologist "consensus does not exist concerning the causes of death or injury associated with the use of restraints."

The explanation being provided here is by no means exhaustive. The general circumstances are pared down to the simplest concepts.

There are two primary groups of people who are at risk of dieing suddenly and unexpectedly after an altercation with law enforcement officers: subjects who consume drugs of abuse and subjects suffering from mental illness.

It is often difficult for a medical professional to tell the difference between someone who is suffering from a psychotic episode that results from drug abuse and someone who is experiencing psychosis due to their mental illness. Police officers cannot be expected to tell the difference. The commonality between the two situations is a change in brain chemistry. This change in brain chemistry is what causes the subject's altered perception of reality - in this particular type of situation the subject is either paranoid or may believes they possess "superhuman" abilities.

Cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, LSD, MDA, MDMA, PCP, even marijuana all have the capability of causing either paranoid ideation or psychosis. Doctors and researchers have known for years that alcohol's effects are "biphasic". Some people initially respond to alcohol as a stimulant. They become talkative, less inhibited and euphoric in the early stages of their alcohol consumption. Later as the blood/alcohol level reaches higher limits the sedative properties of alcohol become more apparent. There is evidence that the faster the rise of the blood/alcohol concentrations (BAC) the greater the euphoria and intoxication that occurs. It may be that the combination of the biphasic effect (stimulation) of alcohol and cocaine that make this particular combination lethal at concentrations that individually are non-lethal.

Officers involved in a sudden and unexpected death may have a subject who is experiencing major sympathetic nervous system activation - the fight or flight response, something we all have, except in these cases the fight or flight response goes into hyper drive.

Subjects who die suddenly and unexpectedly have common classic behaviors of the fight or flight response:

• unbelievable strength;
• impervious to pain;
• able to put up resistance sufficient to exhaust several officers; irrational behavior;

What is different about sudden death cases is that the subject may be imperceptibly fragile because his or her sympathetic nervous system may have been running for quite some time prior to the officers' arrival. The SNS activation could occur as a result of the stimulant effect of a drug or the deterioration of his or her mental condition. Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are not curable only manageable, the disease state waxes and wanes. Abrupt changes to a subject's prescribed medication can precipitate a psychotic event. A subject who suddenly stops taking their medication can have a similar result. There is even evidence a change as simple as a person experiencing low blood sugar and stress can trigger violent behavior.

It is possible that the agitation or delirium may be the result of a drug overdose, alcohol or drug withdrawal or could result from a disease state such as meningitis. The subject may die after being restrained as well as dieing suddenly without any restraint used at all. It has been suggested that people who are behaving in a psychotic manner may be experiencing a medical emergency. They may require medical attention well beyond what an officer can provide. Medical attention is available to the irrational subject, but only after the officers have gained control of him or her. Control requires that force be used to overcome the subject's resistance. The greater the subject's resistance the greater amount of control is required.

Keep in mind that although the subject displays superhuman strength he or she may be physiologically exhausted. The drugs of abuse or the medication they have ingested may cause them to be susceptible to an arrhythmia, an uncoordinated beating of the heart. What is particularly problematic about the arrhythmia is that while the subject is struggling, yelling and breathing their heart is no longer working as an efficient pump. Blood may not be circulating through the lungs to pick up oxygen as it normally would. At the same time, oxygenated blood is not being pumped to the brain. The heart is quivering (fibrillating) rather than pumping. The subject may suddenly and quickly cease struggling. Resuscitation efforts have historically been futile

Drugs of abuse and certain prescribed medications are known to have cardiac related side effects that can result in an arrhythmia. Many drugs of abuse, including alcohol, plus certain prescribed medications are associated with the breakdown of muscle tissue, a process known as rhabdomyolysis. When this process occurs, the contents of the damaged muscle cells leach into the blood stream and problems begin to develop. One of the outcomes of this leaching process can be an increased risk of having an arrhythmia. Rhabdomyolysis can also result from physical exertion. This exertion can occur prior to the arrival of officers as well as during the struggle with the officers trying to gain control and or the subject's struggle against restraints, either while awaiting medical transport or in the back of the ambulance.

Do the best you can with what you have - get help, have an ambulance standing by whenever possible. If advanced life support paramedics are available, ask for them. Have a plan to subdue the subject as efficiently as possible given your circumstances. Use only the force necessary. Pain compliance techniques and aerosol weapons may not work at all. Anything that causes the subject to perceive that he or she is unable to breathe can be expected to cause a greater willingness to fight. Once control is established, do whatever you can to minimize the time the subject is kept in the face down position. The position the subject is transported in is one of the few things that may be altered by the officers. Do what must be done to transport the subject to the hospital safely for all concerned but try to do it on their side, left side down, whenever possible.

Should the subject stop resisting and become quiet his pulse rate, blood pressure and temperature should be taken and recorded. If a defibrillator is available, make use of it. Begin to take notes and describe the struggle. Note the subject's breathing pattern. Describe in detail any continued resistance against restraints and the duration of that struggle. Record whether or not the subject is hot to the touch as well as whether or not the subject is sweating. If the subject dies, certain evidence needs to be collected. Some of the evidence may be lost within the first few moments if it is not collected. Ask for a blood sample as soon as possible. It may be later determined that the sample cannot be used to indicate the subject's condition at the time of death, however, samples uncollected can never be used. The subject's body temperature should be determined right away and every 10 minutes, including after the death of the subject. Record the temperature and humidity of the scene plus the climate control settings of the subject transport vehicles and any rooms where the subject was treated. Avoid having to reconstruct this evidence several days later. The temperature and humidity at the airport weather station may be markedly different than the temperature downtown or in the residence where the incident unfolded. Good evidence will assist in completing a thorough investigation.

The January 2004 edition of The Police Chief has an article entitled "Investigator Protocol: Sudden In-Custody Death" written by Chris Lawrence and Dr Wanda K. Mohr, Ph.D. Chris and Wanda have designed the document primarily to assist investigators who will be doing the in-depth investigation that will take several days to complete. The steps suggested here have been taken from the protocol and identify some of the evidence that can be collected by the officers on-scene. Whenever possible, uninvolved officers should collect this evidence. If that is not possible, then on-scene officers should attempt to have their recordings witnessed independently.

Again, this explanation has been simplified to assist in understanding the problem. There are many other factors that may be at play in this situation The involved officer can change very few of these additional factors. Medical professionals are in a better position to manage many of these factors at the hospital.

Under certain circumstances some subjects may die without medical attention. A police officer cannot be expected to know who does and who does not need to get to a hospital. Officers should act on their authority, use their judgment and training and effect their lawful purpose with only the force necessary given the totality of the situation.

Further information is being developed and will be available shortly. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services or the Ontario Police College.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

"Chris Lawrence is the Team Leader of the Defensive Tactics Training Section at the Ontario Police College. A police officer from 1979 until his appointment to the College in 1996, his past assignments have included Patrol, Underwater Search & Recovery, Tactical & Rescue Unit, Criminal Investigation Bureau and Training. He has been accepted as an expert in use of force training, police tactics and subject control in Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. Chris has presented on the topic of sudden death relating to excited delirium and restraint throughout North America and Australia. He is currently a graduate student at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC."

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