MAN WHO DIED DURING ARREST CHOKED ON DRUGS, POLICE SAY

Oakland police said Friday a man who died during his arrest
apparently had choked to death after swallowing drugs to conceal them
from officers.

Still, the death of Patrick Gaston in his West Oakland neighborhood
Thursday night has inflamed a community already mistrustful of police
in the wake of the Riders scandal, in which a band of police officers
is said to have harassed people and planted drugs to make arrests.

Gaston, 34, died near Eighth and Campbell streets after a struggle
with police who arrested him during a stakeout in an area near the
Campbell Village housing project known for drug dealing.

Police officials remained tight-lipped about the death Friday and
referred questions to a department spokesman who did not return phone
calls or e-mails from The Chronicle.

But three knowledgeable police sources, speaking anonymously because
all media inquiries were to be answered by the chief's office, said
Gaston apparently had choked to death after swallowing what
investigators believe were plastic packages containing heroin. The
sources said paramedics and officers who tried to revive Gaston had
found several small packages lodged in his throat and few bruises on his body.

The case is under investigation by the homicide squad, the police
internal affairs division and the district attorney's office. The
Alameda County coroner's office is trying to determine exactly how Gaston died.

Several people told The Chronicle Friday that officers had thrown
Gaston to the ground and beaten him though he offered no resistance.

"I saw the police grab him, pull him off his bicycle and beat him,"
said Clara Simpson, a volunteer in a nearby church-run thrift shop.
"They beat him. They choked him. I didn't see him fight back at all."

Seth Robinson gave a similar account of the incident, in which Gaston
apparently lost consciousness during his arrest.

"It was straight up police brutality," Robinson said. "There was no
way that they needed to be that rough with him, even if he was
carrying something."

On Friday evening several dozen people gathered around an impromptu
shrine dedicated to Gaston. The curbside shrine included candles,
teddy bears and other stuffed animals. There were dozens of written
tributes to Gaston, who grew up in the area, on cards and placards.
Other notes denounced the police.

Wardell Rogers was among several people at the shrine who compared
the incident to the Riders case, in which four police officers were
fired and charged with falsely arresting people, planting drugs and
writing false reports in West Oakland in 1999.

The criminal case, which deeply damaged the department's reputation
in the city, was dismissed in June after two mistrials. But the city
paid $10.5 million to settle a civil case that also left the Oakland
Police Department under a court-ordered consent decree.