The death of a theft suspect after he was arrested in July in the West Side Austin neighborhood has been ruled a homicide.
At 4:32 p.m. on July 25, officers responded to a call of a battery in the 4600 block of West North Avenue and found a handcuffed theft suspect experiencing a “health issue,” according to Chicago Police.
Security officers had detained 23-year-old Donnell J. Burns and 30-year-old Veronica Calhoun after they tried to return stolen merchandise, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Both suspects resisted arrest.
The officers called paramedics and learned one of the suspects had used narcotics, police said.
Burns, of the East Garfield Park neighborhood, was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:51 p.m., authorities said.
An autopsy did not immediately rule on his cause and manner of death, but has since found he died of physiologic stress and asphyxia during restraint, according to the medical examiner’s office. Acute PCP toxicity and cardiac abnormalities were listed as contributing causes, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Calhoun, a Broadview resident, was charged with one misdemeanor count of retail theft, police said.
