BUFFALO, N.Y. — The New York State Attorney General's Office is now looking into the death last summer of a man who was being held at the Erie County Holding Center.
2 On Your Side spoke to the man's daughter as she seeks answers about what exactly happened with her father.
The AG's office says last Aug. 8, a person in custody at the Erie County Holding Center appeared to have a seizure. As jail deputies assisted him, he became "physically combative," so deputies held him in a prone position to handcuff him.
Ashley Isaac says that was her father, 52-year-old Shaun Humphrey, who died in the hospital a week later, and that a death certificate now lists asphyxia or suffocation from lack of oxygen. This comes after she says she contacted jail staffers.
"They from the beginning have told me many different stories," Isaac said.
She also says her father was given a double dose of Narcan with potential side effects.
"To become aggressive which isn't ... it's not unlikely. But they did say that he experienced a Narcan 'jump,' and that was when they tried to get everything under control," Isaac said.
2 On Your Side asked: "Did your father have any kind of a drug use that would cause them to possibly need Narcan? Or do you think that's all very suspicious that they would use Narcan?"
Isaac replied, "I'd rather not answer that."
Isaac says her father was a contractor involved with Seneca Nation Casino work who loved his grandchildren. She acknowledges that he could be outspoken and did have past contact with law enforcement.
"I've been asked that question a lot, if he was kind of known for being combative, known to be put into the holding center, and I answered truthfully," she said. "Yeah, he was. Regardless, that should have never happened to him in there. It should never happen to anybody in there."
The Erie County Sheriff's Office says such investigations are required by law and with the inquiry it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.