The Latest: Prosecutor to review police neck restraint death

LAS VEGAS – The Latest on the death of an unarmed man after police squeezed his neck to subdue him outside a Las Vegas Strip resort (all times local):

3 p.m.

The top prosecutor in Las Vegas says there will be a use-of-force review of the death of an unarmed man after police officers squeezed his neck to subdue him outside a Las Vegas Strip casino.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Monday the public airing will be scheduled following an investigation of the death early Sunday of 40-year-old Tashii S. Brown.

Wolfson says the proceedings will be similar to those he holds in shooting cases.

Police say an officer used a stun gun and punched Brown during a struggle that ended when an officer squeezed Brown’s neck to restrict the flow of blood to his brain.

A ruling from the Clark County coroner about the cause of death is pending.

Police have not said if the officers involved are still on-duty pending departmental and district attorney reviews of Brown’s death.

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11:45 a.m.

The death of an unarmed man after police officers squeezed his neck to subdue him outside a Las Vegas Strip casino has raised questions about whether the restraint technique is too risky.

Police say an officer used a stun gun and punched 40-year-old Tashii S. Brown of Las Vegas during the struggle that ended when an officer squeezed Brown’s neck. A ruling about the cause of death is pending.

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada executive Tod Story said Monday he’ll seek a review of a policy allowing Las Vegas police to use what the department calls lateral vascular neck restraint.

Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says police in New York are taught not to go for the neck under any circumstances.

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7:15 a.m.

Authorities say an unarmed man has died after police officers used a stun gun and neck grab to subdue him during an arrest on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas police said the arrest happened about 1 a.m. Sunday, which began with the man approaching two uniformed officers inside The Venetian casino-hotel.

Police said he was acting erratic.

Officers were attempting to respond to him when the man ran off on foot into a secured area of the property toward a pickup truck.

Police said an officer used a stun gun, but the situation escalated, prompting an officer to punch the man and use a neck restraint technique, police said. The man died at a Las Vegas hospital trauma centre.

The Office of Internal Oversight and constitutional Policing is investigating.