2,002 suspects died in police custody over 3 years

More than 2,000 criminal suspects died in police custody over a three-year period, half of them killed by officers as they scuffled or attempted to flee, the government said Thursday. The highest number of deaths — 310 — occurred in California, the nation's most populous state.

The review found 55 percent of the 2,002 arrest-related deaths from 2003 through 2005 were due to homicide by state and local law enforcement officers. Alcohol and drug intoxication caused 13 percent of the deaths, followed by suicides at 12 percent, accidental injury at 7 percent and illness or natural causes, 6 percent. The causes for the deaths of the remaining 7 percent were unknown.

In California, the 310 deaths included 162 homicides, 62 deaths by intoxication, 17 by suicide and 20 by illness. There were 25 accidental deaths and 24 were caused by other or unknown causes.

_Blacks were disproportionately represented in arrest-related deaths due to alcohol or drug intoxication (41 percent vs. 33 percent for whites); accidental injury (42 percent vs. 37 percent for whites); and unknown causes (46 percent vs. 39 percent for whites).

Source, and full AP wire service article, October 11, 2007: SF Chronicle