A day after prosecutors said they would not file charges against police in the Korryn Gaines case, Baltimore County police are at the center of another death. A 21-year-old man died Wednesday after a fight with Baltimore County police outside his home over the weekend.
The AP reports Tawon Boyd was hospitalized after the Sunday overnight confrontation outside his home in Akin Circle in Middle River. Police said he became aggressive with officers, and they used force to subdue him.
Here’s how the incident began, according to police:
When officers arrived, they found the man and woman screaming at each other. The woman reported to police officers that her boyfriend had been acting “crazy” and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The man appeared confused and paranoid, sweating heavily, and when police attempted to talk to the man and calm him he ran to multiple marked police cars and tried to get inside. He also began banging on neighbors’ doors.
Police say he would not obey orders, and engaged them physically. Five police officers were involved in subduing him, and WBAL-TV reports they gave him an unknown drug to calm him down. Family members who witnessed the incident said they were scared for him.
“He was just hollering and screaming on the ground, and they just kept pushing him down, pushing him down, on his shoulder and back and stuff, hitting him,” Boyd’s grandmother told the Baltimore Sun.
A lawyer for Boyd’s family said his kidneys and heart failed, and pointed out that he didn’t have bruises or was hospitalized prior to the incident. But she allowed that it’s not clear whether he died due to force or from a medical condition. An autopsy is still being performed to determine the cause of death.
The story is already making national headlines, and comes just after controversial police-involved shooting deaths in Tulsa and Charlotte.
