Autopsy: Suspect Died of Cocaine Overdose

Fayetteville, N.C. — A man who died in January after Fayetteville police used a Taser on him had a toxic amount of cocaine in his system, according to an autopsy report.

Otis C. Anderson, 36, of 2724 Providence St., died on Jan. 9 after officers stunned him twice with a Taser during a struggle at the scene of an attempted break-in, police said.

Officers were responding to a break-in alarm from a convenience store on Murchison Road when Anderson became combative, police said. Anderson had flagged down police earlier to report that he had overdosed on crack cocaine, but he ran off before paramedics could be summoned, police said.

After using the Taser, officers were able to get Anderson on the ground and handcuff him, and paramedics were trying to remove a Taser dart that had stuck in him when he stopped breathing, police said.

The autopsy report indicated that the struggle with police contributed to Anderson's death.

One officer was placed on administrative leave after the incident. The case remains under investigation by the Fayetteville Police Department and the State Bureau of Investigation.

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Latest Comments

It does not pay to do drugs. When tasered it will kill the person.

Dr. Dataclerk
March 24, 2008 10:48 a.m.

People on drugs and those that are drunk or half way there, have more strength than you know. To say its the cops fault he died is wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have gotten high and then tried to break in. Take your blinders off and look at the real picture.

diwanicki
March 20, 2008 9:50 p.m.

tab says, "Parse my words/points all you want to but the bottomline is that were they properly trained &/or using better judgement this man may still be alive."

Even more of a bottom line...if the man had not been doing crack, he would even more likely still be alive. Sit behind your keyboard and beat out more unreasonable responses. I'd like to see you out there on the streets, doing what our fine PO do every day.

As the old saying goes...walk a mile in their shoes before making a judgement about how they do their job. There are PLENTY of openings in the Fayetteville Police Dept. Go sign up...

ChuckD
March 20, 2008 8:35 p.m.

"wcnc, I gave you another option that they could of used. This man was unarmed and looks like he weight 90 lbs soaking wet. say what you want, this is a common sense thing,"

And how many people have you fought that are high on crack? You want to step in the ring with one or sit behind your computer and second guess those who do? Yeah, that's what I thought.......

Common Sense Man
March 20, 2008 8:06 p.m.

"Cops claim all the time they can tell when someone is high, in fact they are trained to notice the signs. so with that in mind, certainly once they know this it should be nothing to add into their training that you don't tase a person who already has an extremely high heartrate!!"

You're right, they should fight these people hand to hand. You know they won't feel much pain and have more strength than normal; so yeah, that's a great idea.

Common Sense Man
March 20, 2008 8:04 p.m.