A 56-year-old Thurston County man who died in law enforcement custody on April 12 has been identified.
Trey C. Hanson died after Thurston County Sheriff deputies put him in handcuffs, but it's still unclear why he died.
Coroner Gary Warnock confirmed Hanson's identity to The Olympian. Warnock said his office is waiting on a toxicology report to determine Hanson's cause of death, which may take a couple weeks.
Lacey firefighters initially responded to a "medical event" at a home on the 1200 block of Manito Drive Northeast near the Lacey Costco, according to a Thurston County Sheriff's Office news release.
People at the home reportedly told dispatch Hanson was acting "erratically" and needed "medical attention." Hanson's behavior prompted firefighters to request help from the Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office says deputies handcuffed Hanson "without resistance" to ensure the safety of fire responders and the people at the home.
"The man was seated and speaking with deputies while waiting for fire to arrive, but ultimately became unresponsive," the release says.
Deputies reportedly uncuffed the man and started performing lifesaving measures, according to the release. Fire responders then continued the measures, but he died at the scene.
Lt. Cameron Simper with the Thurston County Sheriff's Office declined to share more details about Hanson's death. Instead, he deferred to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office which has taken the lead in investigating the incident.
Dusty Breen, Field Operations Chief at the LCSO, said he could not release more information about Hanson's condition prior to his arrest without receiving the cause of death determination from the Thurston County Coroner's Office.
Only LCSO detectives are investigating at this time because there was no use of force in this incident, Breen said. If force was used, then a composite team of investigators from neighboring law enforcement agencies would investigate.
The LCSO is run by Sheriff Robert R. Snaza, an identical twin brother of Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza.
Breen said sheriffs have some influence and he understood why some may see that as a conflict of interest. However, he said such investigations have been conducted for years with multiple partners.
"There's an investigation team, there's prosecutors that review cases," Breen said. "It's more than a sheriff that's arbitrarily controlling an investigation. It's obviously a fact they are related, that they're twin brothers, but there are many pieces to the system."
