Oklahoma medical examiner rules in-custody death a homicide

WALTERS, Okla. (AP) – The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that the March death of a man who died in police custody was a homicide.

A medical examiner’s report says 55-year-old Michael Cooper’s probable cause of death is blunt force trauma.

Cotton County law enforcement officers were serving a search warrant March 10 at a home in Walters, near the Texas border, when they took Cooper into custody. Cooper was taken to a hospital where he later died.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has opened an excessive force case in the death. Few details have been made public.