PORT ANGELES — Police officers played no role in the death of Jerry Norris while Norris was in Port Angeles police custody Jan. 22, according to the summary of a Clallam County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
A summary of an approximately 200-page report was released to the Peninsula Daily News on Thursday. The full report will be released to the PDN by the end of April after certain information is redacted under Public Records Act exemptions, police Public Records Officer Ed Schilke said Thursday.
The report was completed Wednesday by the Sheriff’s Office, which conducted the investigation to provide an independent review of the incident, Sheriff Bill Benedict said.
“There’s no cover-up, no smoking guns,” he said.
“The Port Angeles Police Department is not responsible for that death,” Benedict said.
Sleep deprivation
The summary said in the days leading up to Norris’ death, he suffered sleep deprivation and emotional stress from recent deaths in his family and was “acting very strange, erratic and unlike himself, as witnessed by his mother.”
The summary said on the night of his death, Norris had smoked marijuana and afterward began “stating things that were not understandable.”
Norris died after Officers Michael Johnson and Dallas Maynard and Cpl. Kevin Miller responded to a report of domestic violence at a West 18th Street apartment, according to the summary.
Police were subduing the 40-year-old Norris — who struggled with them and attempted to spit on them — at about 8 p.m. Jan. 22 when the Port Angeles resident lost consciousness and stopped breathing, the summary said.
The officers had placed a “spit hood” over his head and “monitored Norris’ breathing and the position of the spit hood while it was in place,” according to the summary.
Norris was treated at the scene by police and emergency medical personnel and regained his pulse.
He was declared brain dead at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles and taken off life support Jan. 27.
Norris’ uncle, Rick Fields of Reno, Nev., said Thursday that the autopsy showed his nephew died of cardiac arrest.
Fields and Norris’ friends said the behavior was highly uncharacteristic of Norris, who Fields said was 5-foot-8 and weighed about 300 pounds.
“The investigation shows that the involved officers acted professionally throughout their contact with Mr. Norris and immediately began life-saving measures at the time Norris stopped breathing,” said the summary.
“There is no indication that Mr. Norris’ death was caused by anything other than his own actions and current state of health.”
Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said he was not surprised by the findings and that officers acted “heroically. . . . They took very strong measures to save a guy’s life.”
Fields said he found no fault with the officers involved.
“We had the opportunity to sit down with the arresting officers and look them straight in the eye and go through what happened,” Fields said. “That meant a lot to me.”
Fields said Norris had wanted to donate his organs but could not because of health problems.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.