AUTOPSY CLEARS POLICE IN SUSPECT'S DEATH, CHIEF SAYS

But Family Contends Officers Beat, Choked Defenseless Man

The autopsy on a man who died as Oakland police arrested him Thursday
found no evidence to support witnesses' allegations that the man was
beaten by officers, the police chief said Saturday.

Instead, police said Patrick Gaston swallowed a sandwich bag filled
with narcotics and apparently choked to death as he struggled with
officers trying to handcuff him. Gaston's exact cause of his death
has not yet been determined, but Police Chief Wayne Tucker said there
is nothing to suggest that police did anything wrong.

"Mr. Gaston was not traumatized by our staff," the chief said. "We
didn't strike him after he was handcuffed. We didn't beat him."

Tucker said witnesses interviewed by investigators thus far
corroborate the arresting officers' account of the incident.

But minutes after Tucker's news conference at police headquarters,
Gaston's family held their own in the building's lobby to say they
believe that he was the victim of police brutality. They said police
beat and choked a man who was already handcuffed and lying down.

"I saw them murder him on the ground," said his sobbing mother
Gwendolyn Gaston.

Gaston, 34, died near Eighth and Campbell streets after a struggle
with four officers who arrested him Thursday night during a stakeout
near the Campbell Village housing project in an area known for drug
dealing. Tucker said police arrested Gaston minutes after he sold a
small package of black tar heroin to an undercover officer.

Police said Gaston was on probation for an earlier drug conviction, a
stipulation that allowed police to search him at any time, without
cause. Gaston, who was on a bicycle at the time of the bust, resisted
arrest, Tucker said, and one officer struck Gaston three times in the
torso as officers attempted to handcuff him.

Tucker said Gaston continued to resist until he fell to his knees.
Officers had trouble getting him back up and realized Gaston was a
"having a medical emergency." As an officer who previously worked as
a paramedic tried to revive Gaston, others summoned an ambulance, the
chief said.

Paramedics discovered a sandwich bag in his throat containing 18
packages of what is believed to be heroin and cocaine, Tucker said.
Gaston was pronounced dead later at Highland Hospital.

The autopsy conducted Friday by the Alameda County coroner's office
found no evidence that physical trauma played a role in Gaston's
death, Tucker said. The autopsy also did not find any evidence of
ligature marks or choking, he said.

The chief declined to make the autopsy report public.

Gaston's mother, brother and several witnesses insist that the police
account is wrong, and they continued to say he was the victim of brutality.

"My brother was not an angel, but he didn't deserve what happened to
him," said Martin Adrow, the victim's older brother. "If he was drug
dealing, they should arrest him and take him to jail. Don't beat him,
choke him and kill him."

His mother said police were unaware of Gaston's distress until she
and others yelled for an ambulance.

"They were just standing there when it was clear my son couldn't
breathe," she said.

The death occurred in a West Oakland neighborhood once patrolled by
what police and prosecutors called a rogue band of cops called the
Riders. The Riders are said to have harassed people and planted drugs
to make arrests. Many in the neighborhood still deeply distrust the
police, and about 20 of them attended the family's news conference.

Tucker urged any witnesses to Gaston's death to call the police
internal affairs division at (510) 238-7187.