African American man dies in police custody

Police in the US State of North Carolina have admitted to the death in detention of yet another African American.

Travis Nevelle Page, 31, of Winston-Salem died in a hospital on Wednesday, after being pepper-sprayed and handcuffed by police officers, police said.

According to police officials, Page became unresponsive after being placed in handcuffs.

Officers who were involved in arresting Page said he matched the description of a suspect in a crime reported earlier.

The officers detained the suspect after a foot pursuit and a brief struggle, during which an officer used his pepper spray to allegedly contain Page.

Corporal Robert Fenimore, Officer Christopher Doub, Officer Austin Conrad and Officer Jacob Tuttle were all (pictured below) placed on administrative duty during the investigation, which is standard department procedure in tackling such cases.

Conrad and Tuttle have three years or less of experience with Winston-Salem police. Fenimore and Doub on the hand have each spent 20 years or more working for the department.

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has taken over the case.

An autopsy was performed on the victim on Thursday, but according to the SBI, the results will not be made public for another 2-3 months.

Page had a criminal history and was serving a three years probation sentence after being convicted in February on drug and gun charges.

The killing of several unarmed black men by white police officers in recent years and decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers has triggered large-scale protests across the US.

Police killing of mentally ill

Among the victims, however, several cases involving mentally-ill suspects have stood out.

In late September, Los Angeles police officers shot dead a ‘mentally ill’ woman who they claim was wielding a knife.

Back in August, police in Tennessee acknowledged that they had killed another mentally-ill man inside a theater who was allegedly carrying a fake gun and pepper-spray.

An advocacy group called Treatment Advocacy Center said Thursday that Americans with severe mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other civilians.

"At this rate, the risk of being killed during a police incident is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated mental illness than for other civilians approached or stopped by officers," the group said in a report.

The study also estimated that only under four percent of American adults suffered severe mental illness but generated 10 percent of the calls for police service. They occupy at least one in five prison and jail beds, according to the report.

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