Man Taken Into Custody by Police in Boston Dies

BOSTON —The death of a 22-year-old man who had been taken into custody on the night the Boston Celtics won the N.B.A. championship has prompted an official investigation.

The family of the man, David Woodman of Brookline, is questioning whether the actions of the police in subduing him or seeking medical attention for him after he had stopped breathing may have contributed to his death.

Mr. Woodman died on Sunday, more than a week after being hospitalized following his arrest in the early hours of June 18 as he was walking from a bar with four friends while carrying a cup of beer, according to the police and a lawyer for Mr. Woodman’s family, Howard Friedman.

Mr. Friedman said that as Mr. Woodman passed about a dozen police officers at the corner of The Fenway and Brookline Avenue, “he made a comment that ‘it looks like there’s a lot of crime on this corner.’ ”

Mr. Friedman said the police officers grabbed Mr. Woodman, handcuffed him and then pushed him to the ground, where he lay face down.

Thomas Drechsler, a lawyer for the eight patrolmen involved in the altercation, said Mr. Woodman had been arrested because he had an open container of alcohol. Mr. Drechsler said that Mr. Woodman “struggled with the officers” and was “verbally and physically resisting,” but that the officers did not overreact or use batons or pepper spray.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said, “It appears, from the evidence we have reviewed thus far, that officers did not use excessive force.”

Mr. Davis said the police homicide unit, in conjunction with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, would conduct a “thorough and exhaustive investigation.” The internal affairs division of the police department is also investigating, he said.

Mr. Woodman had a pre-existing heart condition, but it was not clear whether that contributed to his death. An autopsy was under way, officials said. Officers called for an ambulance at 12:47 a.m., after they subdued Mr. Woodman, standard procedure because they thought he was drunk, Mr. Davis said. But sometime in the next six minutes, before the ambulance arrived, the police noticed that Mr. Woodman was not breathing, he said.

The police removed the handcuffs, performed CPR and called a second time for an ambulance, asking, “Please push.” Mr. Drechsler said officers ran several hundred yards to flag down an ambulance.

Mr. Woodman was taken to the hospital with marks on his face and had “significant brain damage, which means he was not breathing for more than four minutes,” Mr. Friedman said.