Weight and stress could have intensified the dangerous effects of pepper spray state troopers used to subdue a 550-pound Bel Air man who died in police custody, some experts said.
David Matarazzo, 47, stopped breathing and died after being arrested Monday night outside his Bel Air home, where he had stood with a metal chair and a large rock, threatening to kill his wife and three children, police said.
Results of an autopsy have not been released. But some experts say that the pepper spray could have had a more severe effect on the 6-foot-7 Matarazzo because his size put him at a higher risk for heart problems and breathing difficulties.
“It can cause problems with breathing, quite severe problems as a result of irritation and inflammation,” said Dr. Melissa McDiarmid, who specializes in occupational medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “If you already have a reason to have a compromised breathing situation, it?s like kicking someone when they?re down.”
State police subdued Matarazzo with pepper spray before placing him in handcuffs and washing his face with a garden hose, state police spokesman Gregory Shipley said.
Matarazzo was declared dead at the scene after 12 a.m. Tuesday. An autopsy has been done, but the Office of the State Medical Examiner has not released a cause of death because investigators are awaiting lab results, Shipley said.
Sharon Weidenfeld, a private investigator, said she has worked on several cases in Maryland where pepper spray?s effects were worsened by suspects? existing health issues and led to death, including the 1999 death of Elmer Newman in Prince George?s County.
“The combination of weight, pepper spray and positioning during arrest can cause asphyxiation,” she said.
Though police said they followed standard procedure by “decontaminating” Matarazzo once he was in handcuffs, McDiarmid said the pepper spray?s effects could have continued because of the irritants he had already inhaled and absorbed.
A 2001 study by the National Institute of Justice concluded that pepper spray had no harmful effect on a person?s ability to breathe, even if the person is physically restrained.
But a 1999 study in the North Carolina Medical Journal cautioned that the chemicals in pepper spray can increase the risk of heart attack and respiratory arrest. And in an earlier study, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California concluded one in 600 people died after being pepper-sprayed by police.
