A 51-year-old man, who was found bleeding from his face in a parking lot in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Thursday morning, became violent after police officers tried to help him, and died later in hospital.
According to Ibaraki Prefectural Police, a woman called 110 at around 3:20 a.m., saying that some men were fighting and that she had heard what sounded like glass breaking, Sankei Shimbun reported.
When police officers arrived, they found the man lying on his back, bleeding from a facial injury. Police said he was thrashing his arms and legs and yelling.
When the police tried to calm him down, he became violent, so four officers restrained him to prevent further injury, but he lost consciousness. The man was taken to the hospital where he died later Thursday.
Police said an autopsy will be held to determine the cause of death. A prefectural police spokesperson said: "At this point, we believe the police officers carried out their duties appropriately."
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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kurisupisu
Lying on the ground is the last place that it is possible to receive an injury.
Why was there a need to restrain the man then?
Police officers in Japan need to wear body cams as deaths such as these are inherently suspicious.
WA4TKG
So, I’m no doctor, but having been in a couple of instances in my life, I would say the guy was or going INTO, Shock, and flipped out when they decided to “Subdue” him (even though at that point he was apparently doing NOTHING “Illegal”).
Chances are, he was reacting to THEM as a result of the initial attack.
My ¥2’s worth…
falseflagsteve
Seen the police round here using video camera when they are arresting a violent or loud person who is giving them grief.
Forevermore
Once they had him restrained his life became their responsibility. Put the cuffs on and let him breathe. This sounds like a case of positional asphyxia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_asphyxia
DanteKH
Maybe they just detained him too aggressive and the guy couldn't breathe anymore properly?
virusrex
Because being on the ground does not make it impossible for the man to deal injuries to others or himself, acting violently is a justifiable cause to restrain someone.
There is nothing in the article that says he was prevented from breathing, only that he later lost consciousness which can be the result of his previous injuries. This sounds like a case that should be investigated without automatically assuming what was that happened.
Forevermore
If his previous injuries were the cause of him losing consciousness and dying, then he wouldn't be likely to need restraining. It's not impossible, but it is improbable.
But you're right, it should be investigated and an autopsy is not likely to determine if his restraint was the cause of his death. That would require a thorough investigation into the techniques used during restraint.
Positional asphyxia is understood well. A quick Google search can show you how well.
virusrex
Without knowing what were the injuries you can't make the determination of it being improbable, a subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhage for example would make this not only probable but even inevitable.
Why not? complete absence of any other injury that would explain the death and evidence of asphyxiation (that is something very easy to prove) would make it restrain the only remaining explanation.
This completely contradicts the previous part of your comment, it is so well understood that it can be determined as a cause of death, of course being well understood in no way makes it more likely it happened in this case.
Sal Affist
If this event had occurred in America, we might be considering fentanyl poisoning, or the relatives would already be lawyering up in the hope of suing some municipality for millions of dollars for police brutality.
Christopher
Police said an autopsy will be held to determine the cause of death. Cause of death. Strangulation from a choke hold Japanese police put on the G.P. Illegal in most countries. But they use that sh.....
Forevermore
Well, there's a long pattern of Japanese Police restraining people who then mysteriously die. If the autopsy comes to the same conclusion as the many other instances, it will be cardiac arrest. So the cause of death, is they died. But what caused their heart and respiration to stop?
As @kurisupisu suggested, it's time to put cameras on those who wield the States' power to arrest. You know, just to keep everyone honest.
If you're against that, that's disturbing.
Peter Neil
the cause of death may have been from the injury, not any actions restraining him.
virusrex
Cardiac arrest by itself is not a cause of death, is the mechanism of the death, the cause of the arrest is what is registered as cause of death, without it the result of an autopsy would be cardiac arrest of unknown cause. This by itself would mean it is not related to the identified injuries. With easily obtainable evidence in case of asphyxia and no other reason identified this becomes the cause of cardiac arrest by elimination.
John-San
He lash out at the people who were trying to help him. They try very hard to calm him down then had no choice then to taser his eyes then the 4 policemen place him in a safety hug. I doubt weather the safety hug was the cause but the shock brought on by the taser to his eyes and thinking he will be blinded for life would given him a heart attack. So yeah heart attack
zibala
Not.
Cardiac arrest is a common cause of death
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/cardiac-arrest
bass4funk
One thing about the J-police is they are known for extremely heavy intimidation and they are taught to be imposing, they will huddle around you get in your face, talk very loudly, forcefully and become as imposing as possible, I have been through that myself once in Japan and if you are not a mentally strong person, I definitely can see a person having an episode, but I do agree and think the cops should have cameras like our police in the US, it helps to keep both sides safe and free from abuse and corruption.
virusrex
As usual your own reference clearly contradicts your claim, cardiac arrest is caused by other things which are then the cause of death in the certificate;
To further clarify since it appears you have no experience in the topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526015/