Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
MURRAY — The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office has determined several Utah Highway Patrol officers did nothing wrong during a traffic stop in which a man died after being placed in handcuffs.
On Aug. 12, 2022, Barry Spencer Young, 46, was pulled over for an equipment violation on his vehicle. Troopers questioning Young quickly suspected he may be under the influence of drugs.
In body camera video released Tuesday, a trooper asks Young to tilt his head back and close his eyes for 30 seconds. But Young, who has part of a straw in his mouth, keeps losing his balance.
"I can't do it," he tells the trooper.
"I think your internal clock sped up because you're on a stimulant (such as meth or cocaine)," the trooper tells Young. "I believe you have something in your system."
Young is then arrested and placed in handcuffs. At that point, another trooper asks him, "So, Barry, this is the time I really need you to be honest with me, OK? …For medical purposes, do you feel like I need to have an ambulance come check you out or anything like that?"
Young says he does not need medical attention, but the trooper asks dispatchers to send an ambulance, anyway. Moments later, as Young still has his wrists cuffed behind his back, he has a hard time maintaining his balance and troopers help him sit on the steps of a nearby porch; another trooper asks for the ambulance to be expedited.
At that point, the video released to the public is cut off.
According to the district attorney's office, "Medical personnel arrived at the scene and transported Mr. Young to the hospital where he later died from cocaine toxicity."
Young's obituary states he died "from complications of cardiac arrest." But family members also note, "somewhere along the way, addiction took hold and Barry battled it the rest of his life. He is free of that now, and capable of the potential he always had. But we will miss him so much."
Because of the circumstances, the Utah Highway Patrol invoked an officer-involved critical incident protocol investigation out of an abundance of caution. The district attorney's office determined "the incident did not fall within the statutory definition of an OICI. Nevertheless, the district attorney concluded that no wrongdoing had occurred and declined to file a criminal case against any law enforcement involved."
