CINCINNATI -- A 350-pound black man died after being clubbedrepeatedly by police in a videotaped beating that stoked racialtensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rockedby riots.
The mayor said Monday that the videotape showed that thenightstick-wielding officers were defending themselves.
The cause of Nathaniel Jones' death on Sunday was underinvestigation. But preliminary autopsy results showed that the41-year-old man had an enlarged heart, and his blood containedcocaine and PCP, or ''angel dust,'' both of which can cause bizarreor aggressive behavior, Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrottsaid.
Black activists said Jones' death was another example ofbrutality by Cincinnati police. The fatal shooting of an unarmedblack man by a white officer in April 2001 set off three nights ofrioting.
''How many of our people have to die before the city decides todo something about it?'' said Nathaniel Livingston Jr. of theCoalition for a Just Cincinnati.
The videotape from a police cruiser's camera showed two whitepolice officers landing at least a half dozen blows with theirnightsticks on Jones and tackling him, while shouting at him to puthis hands behind his back. But the tape also showed Jones lungingat one of the officers.
The officers who were at the scene -- five whites and one black-- were placed on administrative leave, which is standardprocedure.
After seeing the video, Mayor Charlie Luken rejected activists'demand that he force Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. toresign.
''What I saw was a 400-pound man violently attacking a policeofficer in a manner that put the lives of police officers atrisk,'' Luken said. ''While the investigations will continue, thereis nothing on those tapes to suggest that the police did anythingwrong.''
An employee at a fast-food restaurant had called 911 earlySunday to report that a man had passed out on the grass outside.Emergency personnel arrived and reported that the man was awake and''becoming a nuisance,'' according to police radiotransmissions.
The first two officers to arrive, Baron Osterman and James Pike,were shown on the video striking Jones after he was warned to stayback. Jones then lunged at one of the two officers and knocked himdown. The officers kept yelling, ''Put your hands behind yourback!'' as they struggled to handcuff him.
They called for an ambulance when Jones appeared to be indistress. He died within minutes of arriving at the hospital,Assistant Chief Richard Janke said.
The Cincinnati chapter of the National Association for theAdvancement of Colored People called for changes in police use offorce.
'If proper procedure means that you can use that kind of forceto clobber people repeatedly who are clearly disarmed, then there'ssomething wrong with the policy,'' said Calvert Smith, chapterpresident.
Black activist groups staged an economic boycott of Cincinnatiafter the 2001 shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, who was wanted oncharges of fleeing police. Officer Stephen Roach shot him in a darkalley and was later cleared at trial of criminal charges.
A federal investigation of that shooting, requested by the city,resulted in a 2002 agreement by the city to tighten policiesregarding use of force and to improve handling of citizencomplaints against the police.
Last February, a white officer chased and fatally shot a blackman who was spotted running from a store that had been broken into.Police, prosecutors and a citizen review panel concluded theshooting was justified because the suspect was beating the officerwith his nightstick.
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