HAYWARD — A man died in police custody here six weeks ago, after a paramedic injected him with a controversial sedative linked to deaths around the country, but Hayward police never told the public about it, this news organization has learned.
The man, 41-year-old Nathan Hoang, had shown up to a home on Virginia Street on March 12 and confronted a family there about an ongoing child custody dispute, authorities said. The family called police after he threw a brick through a window and when officers arrived, he allegedly pulled out a screwdriver and got into an aggressive stance, police said.
The officers attempted to use a stun device on Hoang nine times, and were successful after the first eight attempts failed, authorities said. He continued to yell at police and wrestle with them for several minutes until detained.
When he was handcuffed and on a gurney, a Falck paramedic injected him with Midazolam, court records show.
Eight minutes after the injection, Hoang yelled that he couldn’t breathe and said something about his heart, authorities said. Seven minutes after that, he went unresponsive, according to court records.
Hoang was taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, declared brain dead and officially pronounced deceased nine days later, in the early morning of March 21, authorities said.
According to court records and a law enforcement source, Falck ambulance employees who administered the drug and Hayward firefighters declined to speak with Hayward police homicide investigators about the incident.
Hoang was believed to be under the influence of methamphetamine, based on his alleged erratic behavior and the discovery of the drug and a suspected meth pipe in his car, authorities said. After he arrived at Eden Medical Center, a nurse told police it was common for a person’s blood pressure to “bottom out” after being given the sedative while also having another drug in their system, according to the police report.
Hoang’s death remains under investigation, and police have placed a hold on it, preventing the coroner from releasing information through official channels, according to the Alameda County Coroner’s Office. The official findings of his death are not likely to be released for months.
Also known a Versed, Midazolam was the subject of an Associated Press investigation last year that identified 94 instances across the United States — from 2012 to 2021 — where a person died in police custody after being injected with it.
Sixteen of those deaths occurred in California, including incidents, in Oakland, San Francisco, Richmond and Pleasanton.
The role sedatives may have played in each of the 94 deaths was impossible to determine, the AP reported. Medical experts told the AP that the drugs’ impact could be negligible in people who already were dying — the final straw that triggered heart or breathing failure in the medically distressed, or the main cause of death when given in the wrong circumstances or mishandled.
Representatives of Falck, the ambulance company, didn’t respond to requests for a comment.
Hayward police never issued a news release announcing that someone died while in their custody, and a public information officer with the department didn’t immediately respond to messages asking why.
Hayward police have been involved in other controversial deaths over the years.
In 2017, the city paid $1 million to the family of a man who died as officers were placing him in a full-body restraint device, known as the WRAP. In 2019, Hayward paid the majority of a $1 million settlement after the family of a man with a known medical condition sued claiming he was unnecessarily restrained and tased until he lost consciousness.
In 2023, officers used rifles to kill a BB-gun-wielding man from an extended distance, an incident that prompted calls for a civil rights investigation.
In Hoang’s case, police are investigating it as a homicide. The investigation remains active and prosecutors have not charged anyone, according to court records.
