The Forsyth County District Attorney says police acted appropriately when detaining a man who later died in their custody. The four officers involved in the case of Travis Page were cleared on Monday.
Back in December, Winston-Salem police were responding to a report of gunfire when they came across Page, 31, who apparently matched the description of the suspect.
According to police body camera footage shown to media, an officer asked Page to see his hands. Page did not comply, but instead, he turned and ran, causing the officers to chase him. Page only made it a short distance before tripping and falling into a ditch.
He struggled as officers worked for several moments to handcuff him. They eventually did, and after a search, found a gun, cocaine and money on him.
That's where the story takes a turn. After the search, police realized Page had become unresponsive. After prompting him several times, they administered Narcan – a drug commonly used to treat opioid overdoses – and began CPR. Forsyth EMS eventually made it to the scene and took Page to a nearby hospital, where he died.
When it first came to light in December, the incident raised many questions about whether police acted appropriately, and whether or not they were responsible for Page's death. The State Bureau of Investigation also got involved, a move common in these cases, according to Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill.
After months of examining the case and Page's autopsy, O'Neill announced at a press conference Monday that police handled the incident correctly and lawfully, given the circumstances.
County medical examiner Dr. Anna McDonald says Page had a litany of health problems, including an enlarged heart, a history of hypertension, and more. And because of those factors and the stress of the situation, she ruled the manner of his death “undetermined.”
“You can't parse out how much of his death is natural, because he had abundant natural disease between the heart, the fatty liver and the morbid obesity, and then how much of it could be related to running and falling – which is obviously exertional – and then how much is due to the handcuffing,” McDonald said. “You can't tell those three apart. They run together in this scenario.”
Toxicology reports showed Page was intoxicated at the time of the encounter – his blood alcohol content was 0.19, more than twice the legal limit – but that there were no other drugs of abuse in his system.