A 30-year-old man died at a Fairbanks apartment while being taken into custody after a family member called for help Thursday night, Fairbanks police said.
Timothy McArdle Jr. was a Fairbanks resident, a Fairbanks Police Department spokeswoman said Friday.
McArdle Jr. “was actively fighting officers while they were trying to handcuff him,” spokeswoman Teal Soden said in an email. Officers then used what Soden described as “control tactics” to take him into custody, she said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident started at about 11:15 p.m. Thursday when a relative told emergency dispatchers that Timothy McArdle Jr. had entered his home and threatened him with a knife, according to a written statement from the police department. The relative said McArdle was “tearing up” the apartment, the statement said.
When officers arrived, the relative was outside and McArdle was inside, throwing items out the windows and breaking items inside including water pipes, police said.
Officers tried to talk to McArdle but he refused to speak to them, the police statement said. He opened the apartment’s door several times but refused to come out, it said.
“After a brief stand-off, officers attempted to use less lethal force” to take McArdle into custody for third-degree domestic violence assault and entered the apartment, the statement said. McArdle “fought with officers as they attempted to handcuff him” and then became unresponsive once he was handcuffed, it said.
Officers began CPR and called for EMS assistance, the statement said. Fairbanks medics arrived and began CPR but life-saving measures were not successful and McArdle Jr. was declared dead at the scene, police said. The State Medical Examiner Office is conducting an autopsy.
The term “less lethal force” refers to tactics or use of tools that are not considered deadly force including using a Taser or “defensive control tactics,” Soden said. “All uses of force in this case, from verbal commands to physical force, will be reviewed as part of the investigation in compliance with our policies regarding use of force.”
The state’s Office of Special Prosecutions is investigating the incident, police said.