“I Can’t Breathe!” Man Dies After Cops Hogtie Him At Mississippi Concert

Troy Goode pictured with family

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of a Tennessee man are asking for state and federal help after police hogtied him during an arrest at a concert in Mississippi and he later died, the family’s attorney said Tuesday.

Troy Goode, 30, a chemical engineer from Memphis, died Saturday at a hospital two hours after police arrested him in a parking lot at a concert by the band Widespread Panic in Southaven, about 15 miles south of Memphis, said attorney Tim Edwards.

Goode had ingested the psychotropic drug LSD and was acting erratically, leading witnesses to call the police because they believed he was fighting with his wife, Kelli Goode, according to Edwards and a statement by Southaven police.

Police arrived at about 7:45 p.m. local time (CT) and said he was “acting strange” and running from them, the statement said. They restrained him while attempting to arrest him for disorderly conduct, Edwards said.

The statement did not specify that Goode was hogtied, but a video taken by a witness and distributed by Edwards shows a man identified as Goode face down on a gurney with his arms and legs tied behind him and his arms attached to his legs.

Goode, who has asthma, was complaining that he could not breathe while he was face down with a strap holding his head to the gurney pad, Edwards said.

His wife was not allowed to go to the hospital with him, Edwards said. He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Desoto.

He was dead before 10 p.m., Edwards said.

The Desoto County district attorney did not return calls Tuesday but defended police actions in a news conference and said the cause of death will likely be linked to heart problems exacerbated by stress and drugs, according to WHBQ-TV in Memphis.

Attorneys have asked the Mississippi Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve the evidence pending autopsy results and a toxicology report, expected next month. Edward said they will decide at that time whether to request an investigation.

Goode was a plant engineer at a local industrial supply company and the father of a 15-month-old boy.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Tuesday evening in Southaven.

Appeared on Reuters news wire; reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; editing by Bernard Orr