Inquest into man who died in OPP custody deemed a suicide

The death of a man who died hours after being arrested by Lambton OPP has been declared a suicide, the result of 43-year-old Paul Horan ingesting an overdose of prescription drugs before he was taken into custody.

The incident leading to the death occurred on Sept. 24, 2010. Horan, the inquest into his death heard, appeared to have thrown out an empty bottle of an anti-depressant drug that may have had as many as 50 pills in it at the time.

The inquest also heard that Horan, who was on his way to work in Strathroy, may have panicked and taken the drugs when he was pulled over by police.

One of the jury's recommendations is that hospitals be required to contact the Poison Control Centre when it is believed an unknown drug is involved. That did not happen in the case of Horan, who had been taken to the Bluewater Health Charlotte Eleanor Englehart site in Petrolia.

Horan arrived at the hospital by ambulance (called by OPP) just before 1 a.m. He died at 2:20 a.m. after attempts to resuscitate him failed.

Tags: declared suicide, inquest, Lambton OPP, paul horan