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The Toledo Blade
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BOWLING GREEN – An Indiana man shot to death by police on Oct. 16 inside the Wood County Hospital had a combination of prescription painkillers, an antidepressant, and some traces of cocaine in his system when he died, toxicology tests showed.
Dr. Douglas W. Hess, Wood County coroner, said yesterday that toxicology tests conducted on Daniel Rice, Jr., 30, showed none of the drugs was present at significant levels though. The cocaine was likely ingested a few days before the incident in Bowling Green.
“None of his levels were of significance,” Dr. Hess said. “None were toxic or over what we would think is the therapeutic range.”
Rice, of Napanee, Ind., was shot to death by Bowling Green police Officer Allen Baer after leading police on a chase that ended in the hospital’s emergency department. There, Rice indicated he had a weapon and threatened to kill people.
A state trooper at the scene tried unsuccessfully to immobilize him with a stun gun. When that failed, Rice repeated his threat to kill someone and reached toward his waistband. Officer Baer then fired, hitting him once in the chest.
A Wood County special grand jury that examined the case decided that Officer Baer had not committed any criminal offenses. Bowling Green police Lt. Tony Hetrick said the case is closed.
Dr. Hess said it would be difficult to say what, if any, impact the drugs in Rice’s system had on his behavior the night he stole a car and drove to Wood County, especially because there were only low levels in his system.