The Dallas Police Department is investigating the second in-custody death in two weeks after a 70-year-old man died Wednesday after being taken into custody after a crash.
Dallas Police said an officer witnessed a driver hit another driver at about 1:30 a.m. along the 9500 block of the CF Hawn Freeway service road.
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WATCH HEREThe driver, identified by police as Roy Whittaker, was pulled over about a minute later and taken into custody on misdemeanor warrants.
Police said Whittaker fell ill about 20 minutes later and asked officers for help. Police called Dallas Fire-Rescue and removed the man's handcuffs.
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SIGN UP DFR arrived at about 1:55 a.m. and four minutes later placed Whittaker on a stretcher and into an ambulance. According to police, Whittaker was administered CPR while being transported to the hospital.
Dallas Fire-Rescue arrived at the hospital around 2:27 a.m. and Whittaker died about 15 minutes later. The cause of his death is currently unknown.
Dallas Police have opened an investigation. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office and Office of Community Police Oversight were also notified, according to police.
This is the second in-custody death in a week and the third in-custody death this year. Last Wednesday, a 39-year-old man died in Dallas Police custody. In January, 43-year-old Manuel Najera went into cardiac arrest and died in a hospital shortly after he was taken into custody.
On Saturday, a 39-year-old inmate at the Tarrant County Jail was found unresponsive and was hospitalized. The man later died and his death was ruled a suicide, though his exact cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
