Medical Examiner rules arrestee’s death an accident

The 33-year-old man who Sarasota Police officers twice tasered after he escaped from a patrol vehicle in May, died from issues associated with cocaine intoxication following the arrest, according to a report from the Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s Office.

John Paul Kaafi was arrested May 6, for possessing cocaine, spice and drug paraphernalia. Following that arrest, Kaafi crawled out of the window of a patrol vehicle and attempted to escape, according to the SPD incident report.

After police regained custody of Kaafi, they transported him to the jail. At that time, Kaafi told officers that he was having an asthma attack. Officers called emergency medical personnel, the report states, and said Kaafi was breathing without any apparent difficulty and speaking to officers before being transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where he died soon after.

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office investigated the death.

During the arrest, officers had beaten Kaafi with the end of a flashlight, according to the Medical Examiner’s report. And the arrestee also had injuries from falling out of the patrol car.

While the Medical Examiner’s Office said in the report that the blows from the flashlight resulted in “significant blood loss into the tissues,” that already occurred after he was “critically ill."

Police spokeswoman Genevieve Judge said after the incident that the department was awaiting toxicology results, and Kaafi displayed signs of being under the influence of drugs during his arrest.

“In the absence of any other reasonable explanations, it is thus my opinion that the cause of death is metabolic acidosis associated with generalized visceral ischemia due to acute cocaine intoxication,” wrote Chief Medical Examiner Russell Vega. "The manner of death is accident."