Eric Lurry's Death Ruled Accidental Overdose: O'Neil

JOLIET, IL — On Jan. 28, Joliet Police Sgt. Doug May held detainee Eric Lurry's nostrils shut for nearly two minutes in the back of a squad car while May and other Joliet officers tried to retrieve a small plastic bag of drugs from Lurry's throat. Lurry died several hours later at the AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center. On Thursday afternoon, Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil announced that the 37-year-old Black man from Joliet died of an accidental drug overdose.

Until this week's significant news media coverage of Lurry's case by Joliet Patch and Chicago television stations CBS Channel 2, NBC 5 and WGN Channel 9, O'Neil had not released any information during the previous six months relating to Lurry's death.

However, by Thursday afternoon, several Chicago television station trucks were parked around downtown Joliet near Joliet City Hall and the Joliet Police Station, working on news stories drawing statewide attention to the death of the Black man who died after being in the custody of the Joliet Police Department.

In his Thursday afternoon news release, O'Neil, Will County's retiring seven-term Democrat coroner, revealed that the Feb. 19 toxicology report indicated Lurry had fatal levels of heroin, Fentanyl and cocaine in Lurry's system. The levels were more than 10 times the fatal range, O'Neil indicated.

However, O'Neil's timeline indicated the Joliet Fire Department ambulance crews delivered Lurry from the Joliet Police Department parking lot to AMITA Health Saint Joseph Medical Center at 4:40 p.m. on Jan. 28.

At the time of Lurry's death, Joliet's Police Department indicated that Lurry had been arrested by officers around 4:15 p.m. Patch reported in January that the Joliet Fire Department sent engine 1 and ambulance 5 to the downtown Joliet Police Station on Washington Street around 4:20 p.m. Upon arrival, firefighters found Lurry unresponsive, and he was not breathing on the ground in the police parking lot.

Lurry was pronounced dead at 2:37 a.m. on Jan. 29. Until this week, the investigation into Lurry's death had been kept hush-hush by the Joliet Police Department administration of Chief Al Roechner, by the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force as well as O'Neil's office.

For the past six months, the police administration also withheld the public release of a squad car video showing the events involving Lurry's death while in the custody of Sgt. May, Officer Andrew McCue and Lt. Jeremy Harrison, among the other officers who were standing around in the Joliet Police Department parking lot.

A whistleblower on the department, Sgt. Javier Esqueda, came forward and provided a copy of the videotape to the Joliet City Council, which watched the video for the first time on June 23.

It's also important to point out that O'Neil's news releases rarely ever offer commentary on the conduct of Will County law enforcement officers, but in Thursday's news release, O'Neil offered his opinions declaring, "It is the opinion of the Will County Coroner's Office and the independent board certified forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy that the Joliet Police Department officers played no role and shared no responsibility in the unfortunate and untimely accidental overdose death of Eric D. Lurry Jr."

By 5:30 p.m., a number of people posted comments on social media after reading O'Neil's report, expressing outrage and disbelief, accusing O'Neil of covering up for the Joliet Police Department.

Here's a sampling of the comments of people who reacted to O'Neil's news release.

• "He did not die from narcotics HE DIED BECAUSE JOLIET POLICE SUFFOCATED HIM."
• "Go ahead and tell the citizens the truth. The Chief of Police hid this video from everyone."
• "(Expletive) lying ass police y’all bitch asses killed my cousin."
• "The holding his nose part is still confusing me. What was that about? And why wasn’t paramedics called as soon as he was showing signs of distress?"
• "I read that he had drugs in his mouth and they were trying to get him to spit them out. Not sure how true that is though."
• "They was holding his nose to try to get him spit whatever it was he was chewing on! They ain’t gone put they finger in his mouth cause he could bite them!"
• "JOLIET WAKEUp ! FBI You need to do a Sweep! EVERYONE Call The FBI I will Fwd the number ..Or you can Google it. PLEASE We Have To Put the Pressure On...This Could Be You!"

Here's Joliet Patch and CBS Chicago coverage of Eric Lurry's Case from this week:

• 'I Witnessed The Homicide of Eric Lurry': Lawyer Tells NBC
• Joliet Police In-Custody Death: Mayor Gets Kwame Raoul Involved
• Joliet Sgt. Reveals He Is The Whistleblower On Eric Lurry Death Video
• Ferak Column: 5 Month Later, No Answers On Eric Lurry In-Custody Death