Laguna man dies in police custody

Andrew Edwards

Laguna Beach resident Patrick Wayne McClellan died Tuesday after he

was arrested by Orange County sheriff’s deputies.

McClellan, 32, died at 9:52 a.m. at San Clemente Hospital. He was

arrested after he allegedly removed a deputy’s revolver from his

holster, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

The results of an autopsy were not released as of Thursday

morning. The cause of McClellan’s death is still under investigation,

the Orange County coroner’s division said.

McClellan was involved in a struggle with deputies who were

responding to a call about a suspicious person at an apartment

complex in the 3300 block of Avenida del Presidente in San Clemente

at about 8:33 a.m. Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The two deputies suspected McClellan was under the influence of

narcotics, Amormino said.

“Deputies did observe that he was acting very bizarre,” he said.

“We don’t know what he was doing there,” Amormino said.

McClellan “lunged at one of the deputies” and took the deputy’s

weapon, Amormino said. After the deputy got his revolver back,

McClellan was arrested and handcuffed, he said.

The deputies called paramedics after they observed McClellan had

stopped breathing, Amormino said.

McClellan was transported by ambulance to San Clemente Hospital,

where he died. Since he died while in the Sheriff’s Department’s

custody, the district attorney’s office is conducting an

investigation into McClellan’s death.

Mark Macaulay, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office,

declined to provide any details on the inquiry.