The LA County Medical Examiner’s office said Thursday that Bryan Bostic, the Compton man who died in Inglewood police custody on March 10, died from the effects of methamphetamine.
The 37-year-old’s death was accidental, according to the Thursday morning statement from the medical examiner’s office.
The medical examiner’s office said the full report on Bostic’s death will be available at a future date.
Bostic’s death ignited calls from his family and activists for greater accountability and transparency from a city that stayed silent for more than a week after he died.
Inglewood Mayor James Butts told The LA Local on Thursday that the medical examiner’s findings speak for themselves.
While Bostic died on March 10, neither city officials nor police made a statement until March 22, when Butts said Bostic had been stopped, arrested after a “brief struggle with officers” and appeared to have stopped breathing by the time he arrived at the city jail.
The medical examiner’s office described a similar series of events and said emergency medical services personnel medically cleared Bostic before transporting him to the jail.
Officers attempted to resuscitate Bostic, according to the statement, but he was pronounced dead at 10:15 p.m. The office said a clear plastic baggie with an unknown substance was found in Bostic’s mouth.
Demonstrators have become a regular presence on city street corners and in City Council meetings, calling for more information about Bostic’s death. Bostic’s family filed a wrongful death claim against the city and its police department in April.
City councilmembers voted in April to outfit officers with body-worn cameras, but the city’s Citizen Police Oversight Commission, defunct for nearly a decade, has not resumed meeting.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said in March it is investigating the Inglewood Police Department’s use of force prior to Bostic’s death.
Butts said Bostic’s death remains under investigation, but that he has no information suggesting officers acted out of department policy.
The LA Local has reached out to Bostic’s family, their attorney, Inglewood police, the LA County Fire Department and the LA County District Attorney’s office for comment.
Here is what we know about how Bryan Bostic died
The medical examiner’s findings begin to clear up the murky picture of events surrounding Bostic’s death.
Butts said in a statement in March that police officers stopped Bostic’s vehicle at 9:25 p.m. on March 10 near the intersection of Hillcrest Boulevard and Nutwood Street. Officers moved to detain him after seeing what they believed was an attempt to hide an object.
“During the detention, a brief struggle occurred,” Butts wrote.
Video, taken by a bystander, later surfaced of officers forcibly pinning Bostic to the street.
Butts said in March that officers arrested Bostic, though the mayor did not say at the time why police stopped him, if they found a hidden object or why they arrested him. Butts said police called paramedics to the scene of the arrest to examine Bostic, who was sweating profusely and had bruising on his face.
The medical examiner’s office said police officers observed drug paraphernalia in Bostic’s car.
Denisse Gastélum, attorney for Bostic’s family, said a family-commissioned autopsy showed “significant trauma” to Bostic’s face, head and upper torso. The family’s autopsy was separate from the county.
Officers drove Bostic to the city jail, located in the department headquarters at 1 Manchester Blvd. When they arrived at the station, Butts said, Bostic was unconscious and did not appear to be breathing.
Butts, a former chief of police in Santa Monica and deputy chief in Inglewood, said officers called paramedics.
The County of Los Angeles Fire Department’s personnel responded to calls for paramedics on March 10 at the scene of the arrest and at the city jail, a spokesperson for the agency said. The department is the city’s contracted fire agency.
The spokesperson declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations.
