Man Tasered in North Idaho died of heart attack

A man who died after being shocked with a Taser by a sheriff’s deputy in North Idaho in May suffered a heart attack, officials said Friday Daniel L. Mittelstadt, 56, of Mount Shasta, Calif., had a pre-existing heart condition and a long history of mental health issues when Boundary County sheriff’s Cpl. Clint Randall responded to a report of a naked man blocking a road with his car about 1 a.m. on May 16. Mittelstadt was wearing a jacket and was described by Randall as “uncooperative and irrational.” He fought with Randall, and Randall shocked him with a Taser before handcuffing him. But he immediately released him from handcuffs after noticing Mittelstadt was having difficulty breathing. Randall performed CPR, but Mittelstadt was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Idaho State Police investigated the death, and the Boundary County Prosecutor’s Office determined no criminal charges were warranted against Randall. “The cause of death was determined to be heart attack, not directly caused by the incident,” according to a news release, though authorities say Mittelstadt suffered the heart attack after the Taser was deployed. Rich Stevens, Boundary County deputy sheriff, said pathologists determined that the Taser “did not in itself case the fatality” but a combination of factors like stress and the physical struggle contributed. Stevens said Randall did not know of Mittelstadt’s condition - atherosclerotic coronary artery disease - during the encounter. “He had a guy that was fighting him - that’s all the information he had at that time,” Stevens said. Mittelstadt had traveled to Boundary County from the Lake Shasta area in California. He had several contacts with law enforcement during the trip, including a driving under the influence arrest in Oregon that included a mental health examination. Stevens believes Mittelstadt may have been trying to contact a family member in Moses Lake but became lost. He was located on a dead-end road about 10 miles from the Canadian, border, Stevens said. “It looks like he was trying to find a relative in Washington and in, his medical or mental state, he was just kind of lost,” Stevens said.