Tennessee agents investigate the death of a man in Memphis police custody

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee state investigators are reviewing the death of a man that occurred shortly after he was taken into custody following a foot chase with Memphis police officers, authorities said.

The man, whose name wasn’t immediately released by the Memphis Police Department, was pronounced dead early Friday afternoon at Methodist University Hospital, news outlets reported.

The situation began about 2 1/2 hours earlier when a property owner in central Memphis told police a man was on his property looking through boxes and “retrieving poisonous bait used for rodents,” police said in a news release on social media. A later police call described a man looking into vehicles and going through mailboxes.

Officers found the man, who ran away when they approached him, authorities said. Police later apprehended the suspect, who resisted being handcuffed but was put in the back of a squad car. An ambulance was called when he appeared out of breath and exhausted from running, police said.

Memphis police said the officers involved will be relieved of duty pending an investigation. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate, which is standard practice. Bureau agents were at the scene Friday night.