PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.—A gay adult performer’s death was captured on videotape early Friday morning as sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest him pursuant to an assault complaint.
According to the Bay County [Fla.] Sheriff’s Department, Andrew Grande, 23, choked to death on “a large bag of marijuana” he tried to swallow after he struggled with officers and they tased him. Grande worked in the gay adult entertainment industry under the name Dustin Michaels.
Authorities said Grande and a female friend argued while driving in her car. Grande subsequently “pushed her several times” and left the vehicle. The woman called police, who confronted Grande. While deputies handcuffed a reportedly uncooperative Grande, the suspect stuffed something in his mouth.
The rest of the incident was captured by a camera crew from TruTV and by a video camera mounted on the dashboard of a sheriff’s department vehicle. Released by the BSCO Friday morning, one video shows three deputies holding Grande on the ground and warning him to cooperate or he will be tased. Grande rises to his feet anyway, is tased and falls to the ground, wheezing. He makes several apparent attempts to remove something from his throat and gestures to his chest before telling officers “I can’t breathe.”
Deputies unsuccessfully performed the Heimlich maneuver. Emergency medical technicians arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and used forceps to remove a plastic bag of marijuana from Grande’s throat. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
A preliminary autopsy performed Friday afternoon attributed cause of death to asphyxia due to obstruction of the airway by a foreign material, according to a sheriff’s department press release.
The sheriff offered condolences to Grande’s family and said the three officers involved in the incident are on administrative leave pending a routine investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“These guys watched this person die, and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it,” Sheriff Frank McKeithen told Panama City’s News Herald.
McKeithen also said the deputies at first did not realize Grande was choking. They thought he was overdosing, the sheriff told the News Herald.
Grande had a minor criminal history, including arrests for battery and trespassing. According to the sheriff’s department, had he survived he likely would have faced misdemeanor charges related to the incident.
“Instead, he pretty much ended up taking his own life by ingesting this item that was stuck in his throat,” McKeithen told WJHG News, an NBC affiliate. “He therefore, in front of these deputies, dies and there is nothing they can do. It’s a horrible situation for them, a horrible situation for us and a horrible situation for his family.”
As Michaels, openly gay Grande performed for OnTheHunt.com, BrokeStraightBoys.com, CircleJerkBoys.com and Kink.com’s NakedKombat.com and BoundGods.com websites. He was represented in the industry by talent-management agencies Baileey Productions and FabScout Entertainment.
