Woman Strangles Self While In CustodyWhat a
strange (and sad) story this is:
Carol Ann Gotbaum was arrested at the airport Friday for alleged disorderly conduct, said Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.
Police handcuffed Gotbaum with her hands behind her back and took her a holding cell, where she was later found dead, said Hill.
Police "found her with the handcuffs up by her neck area," Hill said. Gotbaum was unconscious and police and firefighters tried to revive her by CPR and other means, Hill said. "They could not revive her and tragically, she died."
I know, I know, you're wondering how this could have happened. A commenter at Lucianne suggested that she probably managed to get the handcuffs around the front by sliding them down past her rump, and then slipping her legs through. Then she may have put her hands behind her neck to get leverage to try to slip one hand out of the cuffs, but by doing so put pressure on her neck, cutting off the flow of blood to the brain. Sounds odd, I know, but certainly less odd than the alternative, which is that one of the police strangled her.
BTW, I'm going out on a limb here to guess that she was flying US Airways (fka America West), which is consistently and infuriatingly late, to the point where I won't fly them if there is any other option. And, looking later in the story:
A US Airways spokesman told the New York Daily News that Gotbaum's flight to Tucson, Arizona, was preparing to leave when she arrived at the gate.
Traveling alone, Gotbaum rebooked on a following flight, but "she became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area," airline spokesman Derek Hanna told the Daily News.
Labels: Carol Ann Gotbaum
