A Stanislaus County man died Thursday evening, following a physical struggle with deputies as they tried to restrain him, the county sheriff’s office said.
Deputies responded to a “family disturbance” at a home on the 13000 block of Rivercrest Drive at around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, the sheriff’s office said. When they arrived in the residential neighborhood, a family member alleged that 39-year-old Shane Harlan had caused about $800 in property damage.
“As deputies attempted to take Harlan into custody for vandalism, he resisted deputies’ attempts to arrest him, resulting in a brief physical struggle,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Deputies were able to place Harlan in handcuffs; however, he continued to resist.”
The deputies then restrained Harlan’s hands and legs with a full-body restraint device and seated him on the floor, where he became unresponsive. He then “experienced a medical emergency,” the office said.
Deputies requested emergency medical personnel and began providing medical aid, including removing the full-body restraints on Harlan, the office said, but he died at the scene. Harlan’s cause and manner of death were unclear pending an autopsy by the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office.
The sheriff’s office and the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office opened an investigation into the circumstances of Harlan’s death.
The incident comes on the heels of the county’s agreement to pay $5 million to the mother of 40-year-old Anthony Silva, who died a year after a 2022 encounter with Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputies. “While handcuffed, Silva was ‘forcibly slammed’ onto concrete as he was searched, according to the complaint filed on his mother’s behalf,” the Modesto Bee reported last week.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against the officers involved in the 2022 incident, which was recorded on their body cameras, according to the Bee.