David McTaggart: Struggle and drug ‘most likely behind death’ after citizen's arrest
A suspect robber’s struggle to free himself from a citizen’s arrest combined with amphetamine found in his blood may have caused his death, an inquest heard.
David McTaggart, aged 29, was detained by two tree surgeons who said they witnessed him robbing a woman in Stafford Road, Wolverhampton.
They pinned him face down on the ground for several minutes while they waited for police to arrive.
At some stage McTaggart – who was one of the most prolific car key burglars the region had ever seen – suffered a cardiac arrest and despite efforts at CPR he did not regain consciousness and died three days later at New Cross Hospital.
Yesterday his inquest heard from Dr Michael Griffith who had been asked by the Black Country coroner to conduct an independent report.
He explained that he believed the likeliest cause of the cardiac arrest had been high levels of acid in McTaggart’s blood (acidosis) caused by physical exertion and the presence of amphetamine.
Dr Griffith, said: “There are lots of cases where people are restrained, and there is the presence of amphetamine, and where long-term cocaine use desensitizes the patient. Then they become acidosis.”
“Whether it is restraint that prevents them from dealing with acidosis is not clear.
“Here we had very rigorous exercise in the attack on the woman and a struggle against the workers who detained him. This resulted in metabolic acidosis.
“The restraint may in someway have prevented him from running off.”
Mr Griffith added that CPR “seemed to come quite slowly” but that it was “unlikely” it could have saved McTaggart if performed sooner.
The inquest jury also heard from pathologist Dr Olaf Biedrzycki who said it was difficult to “precisely pinpoint” a single factor which had caused the cardiac arrest.
But he did state there was a “significant level” of amphetamine found in McTaggart’s blood.
He said: “This was a situation where he had just committed a robbery and is now being confronted by members of the public.
“Psychological stress alone can make the heart beat faster and there was also physiological stress in that he exerted himself to commit the robbery and to stop himself from being restrained.
“There are multiple risk factors for why the heart would be beating faster and this was compounded by amphetamine.”
Dr Biedrzycki gave the formal cause of death as hypoxic brain injury and bronchopneumonia, due to cardiac arrest, due to amphetamine intoxication in a patient with schizophrenia, with a very close relationship to a period of prone restraint.
McTaggart was detained near the junction of Church Road opposite Oxley Moor Road, at around midnight on October 16 last year.
The thief, of Greenwood Road, Wolverhampton, came to public attention in 2010, when it was revealed how he had stolen high performance car worth £265,000 from the Black Country and Staffordshire.
The inquest, at Black Country Coroner’s Court, continues.
