Black Man dies after Trenton Police Subdue Him - Family Arranges Autopsy

Ronald Wilson, 38, went into full cardiac arrest while being taken to the hospital for injuries he sustained during a struggle with officers, according to a police spokesman. He died shortly after the heart attack. The incident occurred after Wilson was involved in a car accident, police said.

Trenton police internal affairs is investigating. 

Wilson had highly elevated levels of the drug PCP in his body, according to toxicology tests ordered by the Mercer County Medical Examiner's office, multiple police sources said late yesterday.

Also, a second autopsy on the body of 38-year-old Ronald Wilson, which was arranged by his family and completed yesterday, found essentially the same results as the one completed by Mercer County Medical Examiner Dr. Rafaat Ahmad, sources said.

The police sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information. But some of them sought to publicize the information to counterbalance how the family has been portraying the incident: that police officers used excessive force that resulted in Wilson's death.

Members of Wilson's family, along with sympathizers, have twice taken to the streets to publicly accuse the five police officers involved in struggling to control Wilson of being killers.

Late last night, however, lawyer Robin Lord, who is representing the Wilson family, confirmed the second autopsy had been completed and said the examiner, Dr. James Gill, found "clear evidence" of blunt force trauma to Wilson's body. Gill is a deputy chief medical examiner for New York City.

Again, police sources said last night that Gill had indeed found bruising on Wilson's head, but it was minor and consistent with a struggle with police officers and was not fatal to him.

As for the PCP results, Lord said they are "highly suspect" and the family will be conducting an independent investigation. She said there are independent witnesses who said Wilson exhibited no unusual or strange behavior.

Police have said that Wilson crashed his car on East State Street at about 7:40 p.m. Saturday then walked away from the two patrol officers who responded. As the officers tried to detain Wilson, police said he kept walking away and ignoring commands, and then started attacking the officers, who called for backup.

Five officers were needed to detain Wilson -- who was 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed 280 pounds -- and Trenton EMS and Mercer County paramedics were called and took Wilson to a city hospital for his injuries. He died in the emergency room a short time later.

An initial autopsy by Ahmad found no obvious physical injury that would have caused his death, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

As of yesterday, Ahmad had not submitted a formal report determining the cause and manner of Wilson's death. Trenton police homicide and internal affairs units are investigating all aspects of Wilson's death.

Meanwhile, earlier yesterday, before the PCP findings started spreading through the police department, Police Director Joseph Santiago made his first public comments on the incident, saying nothing he has seen has led him to believe members of the Trenton police did anything wrong in dealing with Wilson.

"I support the officers' actions ... they do not appear to have violated any policy and are in accordance with our standards," the director said.

Santiago said he has full faith in his investigators and their ability to police themselves, but he will defer to the county Prosecutor's Office, which will ultimately make any decision on the officer's actions. Santiago said he had already made that request of Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr.'s office.

"But ultimately, at this point, there's nothing to indicate we didn't handle it properly," Santiago said.

by Paul Szaniawski/The Times
TRENTON -- A city man died of a heart attack after trying to fight off multiple police officers Saturday night.



Police said Wilson was injured while resisting arrest at around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday. It took several officers to subdue the man during the struggle, they said.

Detectives believe Wilson became violent with officers who attempted to question him. He began resisting arrest and attacking Officers Charles Steever and Victor Vega, who called for backup, police said. After the scuffle with several officers Wilson was handcuffed, and an ambulance was called to usher him to Capital Health System at Fuld.

The patrol officers initially began pursuing Wilson when they suspected him of being involved in a car accident and walking away from the scene near East State Street and South Cook Avenue, police said. They said he ignored their orders to stop and kept walking away before they caught up and were attacked.

Police said the Mercer County Medical Examiner's Office is holding the body pending an autopsy. The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office is also taking part in the investigation. [MORE] and [MORE]