A 21-year-old man is believed to be brain dead after he reportedly swallowed a baggie of cocaine, causing him to stop breathing during an arrest in Round Lake Beach, police said.
The Round Lake Beach Police Department responded around 11 p.m. on June 10 to the Thornton’s gas station, 180 East Rollins Road, for a report of a disturbance in progress.
Police said that an employee at the gas station pushed the panic button because a man was inside the store shouting and threatening him.
The employee called 911 earlier in the evening for the same issue but the suspect fled before police arrived.
The suspect, identified as Abel Rosiles, 21, of Round Lake, was located walking out of the public restroom when officers arrived the second time.
Rosiles and another person, identified as Shelby R. Brubaker, 21, of Round Lake, began shouting and officers placed Rosiles into custody for disorderly conduct without incident.
“As an officer was walking the offender to a squad car, he was able to get away, and he fled on foot approximately 30 feet. The arresting officer was able to take him back into custody and walked him back to the squad car which was parked at Thornton’s,” the police department said in a statement.
Brubaker was taken into custody after she began yelling and interfering with the arrest of Rosiles, police said.
Officers noticed that Rosiles was having trouble breathing. They asked the man if he was choking and he nodded that he was.
The Heimlich maneuver was attempted without success and the man lost consciousness. The officers tried to clear the man’s airway but they did not see anything in the back of his throat.
Paramedics were called and officers removed the man’s handcuffs before starting CPR on him.
Paramedics used a medical tool and extracted a large plastic baggie containing a white powder substance from deep inside Rosiles’ throat, police said. The powder substance later field tested positive for cocaine.
The man was transported by ambulance to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Police were notified the following day that the man was still alive but did not have any brain activity.
Video footage of the incident is expected to be released “very soon,” according to Round Lake Beach Deputy Police Chief Wayne Wilde.
The Lake County Major Crime Task Force is conducting an independent investigation, according to the Round Lake Beach Police Department.