When a 24-year-old former Marine experienced a manic episode at a southern Indiana rest stop, his mother called 911 for help getting him mental health treatment. The woman would watch as her son, Taylor Ware, was bitten by a police dog, shocked with a Taser, pinned to the ground and injected with a sedative. He would die at a hospital days later. Two experts who reviewed Ware’s August 2019 death for The Associated Press said the initial responding officer’s decision not to wait for backup triggered a chain of events that resulted in a preventable death. Ware’s autopsy found that he died from “excited delirium" — a disputed condition used for decades to explain the deaths of people restrained by police.
