A Pasedena man who died suddenly in custody Wednesday night suffered a drug-induced haze called “excited delirium” that led to a heart attack, Anne Arundel County police said.
Steven Ray Ellison, 24, of Pasadena, was pronounced dead shortly after midnight Wednesday at Baltimore Washington Medical Center, police spokesman Lt. David Waltemeyer said. He was being arrested after reportedly assaulting his girlfriend, another friend and the owners of the Center Street house they were visiting.
“We don?t know why he started assaulting the woman,” Waltemeyer said. “He might have been using drugs, or we believe there may be a mental history there.”
Since 2000, two other suspects died while in Anne Arundel County police custody because of excited delirium that caused cardiac arrest.
“These individuals experience paranoia and marked agitation prior to death,” Dr. Deborah Mash wrote in the 2002 Journal Neurochemistry.
She said the symptoms may result from an uncompensated increase in dopamine, the chemical that causes euphoria. Symptoms often include hallucinations, irrational behavior and incoherent communication. Nationwide, excited delirium is often blamed for the death of suspects in police custody, but critics argue the ambiguous condition is a screen for cases of police brutality.
Ellison was the third police-related fatality of the year in Anne Arundel County.
Police fatally shot two other men earlier this year while trying to subdue them, including a mentally ill 18-year-old from Glen Burnie who allegedly charged at police with a pair of large scissors, Waltemeyer said. Three other men were wounded this year when they were shot by county police officers during attempted arrests.
Ellison pleaded guilty in November to second-degree assault for an incident in June and was placed on probation until May 2008, according to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court records.
In September 2005, Ellison lost an appeal of a second-degree assault conviction related to a June 2005 incident. Ellison?s autopsy was scheduled to be completed Thursday, but Waltemeyer said results of drug tests would not be available until a later date.
