THE BRONX — A man died after being tasered by police Monday, authorities said.
Officers responded to a call for help at 8:15 a.m. at 2263 Loring Place and found 51-year-old Mario Ocasio carrying scissors and acting erratically, police said.
His girlfriend had called for help and told police Ocasio had taken synthetic marijuana or K-2, police said.
Police ordered Ocasio to drop the scissors and when he wouldn’t, they zapped him with a taser. They placed him under arrest and put him in an ambulance, police said.
Inside the ambulance Ocasio went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Hospital, police said.
The medical examiner is working to determine Ocasio's cause of death and an investigation into what happened is ongoing, police said.
In April, the city saw a dramatic spike in K2-related hospitalizations, though as of late last year no deaths had been linked to the drug.