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Autopsy: Tasered man's cause of death unknown

Published August 22, 2007 at midnight

The Denver Medical Examiner's Office was unable to determine just exactly what killed Albert Romero, a Denver real estate salesman who died after he was tasered by police in the early morning hours of July 16.

The autopsy report released today found that the 47-year-old business man had marijuana in his system and was suffering from untreated heart disease.

Prepared by Dr. James Wahe, the report said Romero died of complications of a cardiopulmonary arrest, which occurred at a time when he had heart disease, was in a probable excited state, had marijuana in his system and had been restrained with an electrical device.

The situation began when Denver police officers responded to a call that Romero was walking around his neighborhood 6100 block of West Yale Avenue while dressed in a pair of shorts. To stop him from smashing out lights, they stunned the 247-pound man with a Taser.

Romero was handcuffed and taken to Swedish Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:15 a.m.

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