(MOBILE, Ala.) -
Ten years ago, then Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran stepped up to a podium and made this statement: "The officer must do what he has to do to survive the encounter."
He was referring to the case of a 27 year old USA student named Joseph Annis, who died after being subdued by police in Midtown.
Annis died from a combination of strangulation and blunt force during a struggle with police... and from an enlarged heart , brought on in part, said police, by LSD.
Officers were cleared of any wrong doing.
Fast forward to this Tuesday's news conference in connection with 18 year old USA student Gil Collar, fatally shot by a USA officer who claimed the student was violent and aggressive... and appeared to be out of control.
"The deceased had apparently attended Bayfest," Sheriff Sam Cochran told news organizations, "and apparently, we believe, had ingested LSD, or what was reported to us as being LSD. We have discussed that with some witnesses who gave us sworn statements to that effect."
At Mobile's Drug Education Council, experts don't know a lot about the facts of what happened that night on the USA campus.
But Gail Hooper says they do know about the illegal drugs that interact with our community.
"We still get reports of it." she said. "IT" is LSD, which fell off the map sometime back.
But not completely.
And when it surfaces, it's a familiar story.
"Some people can get very aggressive, violent," said Hooper.
"It tends to increase whatever mood they're in. So if they are already feeling sad or down, it intensifies that. If they are already feeling exciting and happy, it tends to intensify those emotions as well."
LSD is an old drug, that some fear is gaining new fans.
"They don't understand what it means to be totally out of control," said Hooper.
Only a toxicology report will reveal is Collar was under the influence of LSD that night.
It might require a grand jury to decide if that was enough reason for an officer to use deadly force.
But if Collar's report indicates LSD, Sheriff Cochran says the party responsible for getting the drug to him could be charged with murder.
