Death of man who struggled with Walmart security ruled a homicide
Chicago IL Nov 21 2017 The death of a man after he was restrained by security guards in a Walmart parking lot on the Northwest Side has been ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Donnell J. Burns, 23, died primarily of “stress and asphyxia” after struggling with the guards in the 4600 block of West North Avenue on July 25, the office said.
Contributing factors were toxic levels of the drug phencyclidine, or PCP, in his blood and abnormalities in his coronary artery. PCP is an anesthetic that can cause hallucinations.
It also can cause a cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or heart attack, seizures or panic attacks, said Dr. Samuel Grief of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Burns and a woman had been stopped by security officers around 4:30 p.m. after they tried to return some stolen merchandise, Chicago police said at the time.
They resisted and police officers were called, police said. Responding officers found Burns handcuffed on the pavement and “experiencing a health issue,” police said.
He was taken to Norwegian Hospital, where he was pronounced. The woman with him was charged with one misdemeanor count of retail theft.
Chicago police said no one has been arrested and detectives continue to investigate. It was not immediately clear whether charges would be pursued. The state’s attorney’s office did not immediately return calls.
In an email explaining what happened to Burns, Becky Schlikerman, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, explained that homicide does not inherently indicate criminal intent.
“Intent to cause death is a common element but is not required for classification as homicide,” Schlikerman wrote in an email.
The corporate director of communications for Walmart did not respond to specific questions about the case, including whether the loss prevention officers involved in the incident are still working at the store.
A video of the incident was widely circulated on social media – one post on Facebook was shared several hundreds of times – after Burns died.
The cellphone video appeared to show a person restrained on the ground in a parking lot outside of Walmart – with a woman in a Walmart vest briefly stopping, looking on, in front of the cell phone used to shoot the video.
There appear to be two guards applying a great deal of force to keep the man on the pavement. The video was shared with Chicago police.
Grief, the University of Illinois at Chicago doctor, speaking in generalities about PCP use said it is a fallacy that the drug can make a user physically stronger.
“It doesn’t have that ability – to physically make you stronger or to make you feel Herculean. It does allow your brain to misinterpret your surroundings and your environment; you may perceive yourself at risk for being injured and it would stimulate the fight or flight phenomenon,” Grief said.
If it is used once or twice, the short-term effects could include a lack of coordination, a speech impediment, delusions or paranoid thoughts.
“It may also cause a person to feel euphoric, which is the presumed purpose of taking this drug for leisure or recreation,” Grief said.
If the drug is taken three or more times, it could cause a person to be addicted to the drug and that could bring on mood swings, highs and lows, permanent memory impairment, ongoing paranoia and delusions, and suicidal or homicidal thoughts, which make it dangerous for the user and those around the user, he said.
He also said PCP doesn’t have a medical function and isn’t prescribed by doctors.
“There is no therapeutic dose of the drug,” Grief said. “It can only be construed as harmful and of no value to any person at any time.”
Chicago Tribune
