Brutality Against Man, 82, by U.S. Officers Alleged : Protest: The victim died two months after a demonstration against the Persian Gulf War.

A coalition of anti-war activists Thursday accused U.S. Federal Protective Service police of brutality in their treatment of an 82-year-old Spanish Civil War veteran who died two months after he joined a turbulent Jan. 16 demonstration against American involvement in the Persian Gulf War.

Although a Los Angeles County coroner’s autopsy last Friday showed that William (Wild Bill) Gandall died of natural causes, activists charged that he was knocked to the ground and then mistreated by federal officers, hastening his death on March 23 at Long Beach Community Hospital.

On the steps of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, where the January demonstration took place, activists from the Los Angeles Coalition Against U.S. Intervention in the Middle East also claimed that Gandall was not given immediate medical aid after he was injured.

Kate Gandall, the man’s daughter, said she was in the process of “pursuing legal action” against the officers.

A spokeswoman for federal police denied the accusations, saying that officers acted responsibly during the protest and responded quickly to Gandall’s cries for medical attention.

“We are confident he was not abused in any way,” said Mary Filippini, the spokeswoman. She added that Gandall might have fallen as demonstrators tried to rush to the front of the building for a sit-in.

Bob Dambacher, a county coroner’s spokesman, said Gandall’s official cause of death was “arteriosclerotic heart disease (hardening of the arteries).” An independent pathologist hired by Gandall’s daughter came to a like conclusion.

“Any injuries that might have occurred wouldn’t have any bearing on his demise,” Dambacher said.

But according to Kate Gandall, her father said in a hospital interview that his treatment was “the worst he had ever seen since his early organizing days with the (Congress of Industrial Organizations).”

On videotape, a haggard Gandall said that he was poked by police with nightsticks in the stomach and face and knocked over. “The cops were very mean, the way they held their sticks,” he said.

The activists did not produce any witnesses to the alleged beating, though several claimed that police prodded numerous demonstrators near where Gandall stood. Another witness, Bob McCloskey, a representative for the Service Employees International Union, said that after Gandall was taken inside the building by police, he complained of feeling ill but was ignored for half an hour.

McCloskey said a clerk gave Gandall a chair, but that when he appeared to grow faint it took repeated complaints from him and others to prompt federal officers to summon paramedics.

“Nobody came over to him and tried to see what was wrong,” McCloskey said.

Filippini responded that Gandall was “given attention immediately.”