Coroner's report says suspect's death was cocaine-related

Rapides Parish Coroner’s Office report has ruled that the February death of a mentally ill Alexandria man in police custody was accidental, probably from a combination of his schizophrenia and a high level of cocaine he ingested before he was arrested.

Though Robert Ricks was stunned by a Taser twice for five seconds or less on Feb. 5 – once by an Alexandria police officer and once by a Rapides Parish sheriff’s deputy – the Coroner’s Office said Ricks most likely died from “excited delirium,” a result of “schizophrenia and cocaine (acting) in concert” and leading to his death.

Rapides Parish District Attorney James “Jam” Downs said the coroner and State Police reports, released by his office Tuesday, clear Alexandria police who arrested Ricks on Feb. 5 and clear Rapides Parish sheriff’s deputies who helped carry Ricks to a jail cell as he resisted.

Downs said his office would not pursue criminal charges.

“The rush to judgment that Robert Ricks was deliberately Tasered to death by police officers is without substantial support in the independent investigation by the Louisiana State Police,” Downs said in a statement.

“Although it is obviously a relief to our department and our officers, this is not a time to rejoice,” said Loren Lampert, Alexandria public safety commissioner. “Our thoughts and our prayers go out to the Ricks family for their loss.”

According to a report by State Police investigator Melissa Welch, who interviewed 32 witnesses including firefighters, paramedics, police officers, deputies and others, Ricks was combative and resisted police who responded to a call by Ricks’ grandmother, Maxine Jones.

Jones called paramedics before 10 p.m. Feb. 5 to her Applewhite Street home to help her with her grandson, Ricks, who had been released a few days earlier from Crossroads treatment center, a mental health facility.

Paramedics and firefighters, who also respond to medical calls, later called in Alexandria Police officers. According to the State Police report, a Fire Department captain remembered Ricks from another incident in September or October 2010, when Ricks tried to cut his own penis off and refused treatment.