Tyler Tabor Death Update: Parents Of Man Who Died In Jail While Withdrawing From Heroin Promise Lawsuit

When Tyler Tabor, 25, was booked at Adams County Detention Facility in Colorado in May, he told the staff there he was suffering from heroin withdrawal. Three days later, he died while still in police custody, KDVR-TV in Denver reported.

Prosecutors investigated the case and decided that authorities bore no blame for causing Tabor’s death. A report released last week attributed the death to natural causes. Now Tabor’s parents are calling into question how authorities cared for their son, who died of dehydration, and plan to file a lawsuit, according to the Independent.

"I absolutely feel like they dropped the ball out there and, yeah, they took my son from me out there,” Tabor’s father Ray told KDVR. Ray Tabor asked why nobody gave his son an IV when he asked for it. A nurse said in the DA’s report that Tabor asked for an IV before he died, but also said they usually don’t use IV’s unless it is totally necessary. “He asked for an IV. He was falling on the floor. How do you just pass by that?” Ray Tabor told KDVR.

The report said Tyler Tabor lost his balance at times and needed help to take medication. Authorities didn’t make a row check as they normally would have at 5 a.m. the day of his death because they were dealing with other incidents, but did notice about 25 minutes later that he was having trouble breathing. On his way to the hospital in an ambulance, he died.

Tabor was booked on one warrant for not complying with his probation on a harassment conviction and failing to appear on charges of speeding and driving under restraint, according to a Denver news station. Tabor told his parents he was afraid to detox while in custody, but his parents chose not to pay his bail, trying to show him "tough love."