Police: Fugitive Who Died After Arrest Took Cyanide Pill

DENVER (AP) — Registered sex offender Robert Lindsay, a fugitive on the run from Maryland for two years, slipped out of a Denver-area motorcycle painting shop where he worked when police arrived to arrest him in July.

He didn't get far before he encountered officers working at a road construction project. He held his keys in front of him as he walked toward them and was handcuffed. He started sweating profusely and became unresponsive before he died later at a hospital.

Acting on a tip from family of the 51-year-old Lindsay, the coroner found he had died of cyanide poisoning, presumably from a capsule he told relatives he carried with him to avoid having to go back to prison, coroner's investigator Marilynn Manzutto said Tuesday.

Police believe he took the pill sometime after evading officers at the shop in Golden. The key chain he held toward officers had a cap that fit a metal container later found along the road by police using a metal detector, Capt. Joe Harvey said.

Golden police announced Lindsay's cause of death Monday after an internal investigation cleared officers of any wrongdoing in his death.

Police at first thought Lindsay had suffered some kind of medical problem. Officers took his outstretched arm and used it to push him to the ground and handcuff him, but not other force was used in making the arrest, Harvey said.

Lindsay was wanted for violating his parole in Maryland, where he was serving time for assault, drug use and dealing, Harvey said. Criminal records also show he was a registered sex offender involving a crime in Arizona.

Police went to the shop to arrest him at the request of U.S. Marshals, who had gotten a tip about his whereabouts.

It's not clear how long he had been living in Colorado. The warrant for his arrest was issued by the Maryland Parole Commission in August 2013.

"Certainly that's a long time to be looking over your shoulder, wondering when the police are coming," Harvey said.

By Colleen Slevin, AP Writer

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