Another death due to alleged police negligence. In July 2024, Nathan Bradford Smith,33, was arrested for using methamphetamine. He was picked up by cops after multiple encounters where he was found smoking the substance.
According to the New York Post, Nathan, who was suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, began speaking “quickly and incomprehensibly” following his arrest. While in the back of the police car, he died of heat stroke aggravated by his meth use.
However, Smith’s family filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, alleging that his death was caused by police negligence. According to the lawsuit, the Coos Bay Police ignored the obvious signs of medical distress in the mentally ill man. Instead of getting him help, the officer left him in a hot parked petrol car.
His family’s lawsuit accuses officers Benjamin Martin, Tristan Smith, and Wesley O’Connor of negligence and “deliberate interference.” They alleged that the cops “left him to die,” while they kept busy watching TikToks and exchanging intimate texts.
The situation unfolded when the police found Smith on the ground outside of a Motel 6 on July 7, around 5 pm local time. He was wearing a heavy coat and rain pants. His family’s lawsuit states, “One of the 911 callers indicated they were concerned for Mr. Smith’s safety. Another caller indicated that Mr. Smith was on the ground ‘flailing around.”
A state police officer who reviewed the body cam video of the arrest revealed that the mentally ill man was struggling to breathe properly when the officers handcuffed him. He was clearly in desperate need of medical help as his eyes were closed when he barely managed to get into the police cruiser. Smith was also continuously gasping for air, as revealed by the body camera footage.
Officer Martin, who was driving him to the Coos Bay Police Department, allegedly left Smith inside the parked car with the windows up at 68 degrees. He then went into the station. Oregon Live reported that inside the station, the cop was scrolling through TikTok videos while the man inside the cruiser outside was dying. Martin also allegedly responded to a text message that said, “I’m so ready for snuggles. I feel like I haven’t seen you in a week.”
A wrongful death civil rights lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the City of Coos Bay, after lawyers for the mother of Nathan Bradford Smith, 33, of Coos Bay, said he died due to negligence and abuse by Coos Bay Police officers.https://t.co/x3DzkD5Lod
— KCBY News (@KCBYNews) August 9, 2025
Eventually, the officer returned to the car parked outside. His bodycam footage showed an unconscious Smith, whose head was tilted back, and he was breathing in what has been described as an “odd pattern.”
According to the state police investigators, Officer Martin gave him a dose of Narcan, an overdose-combating drug, and called an ambulance.
The court documents of the lawsuit state that the paramedics found him with a 107-degree temperature. Although he was immediately rushed to Bay Area Hospital, he died shortly after due to a cardiac arrest.
Smith’s family’s attorney, Juan Chavez, told KGW, “When these officers found him, he was clearly showing the signs of medical distress, and what we know when he finally did get to see a doctor is that his temperature was 107. He was hyperthermic, and he was going to die. And unfortunately, he did.”
“There was a 40-minute delay in getting him critical medical assistance,” the lawyer claimed. As per the lawsuit, “His cause of death was listed as ‘hyperthermia due to Methamphetamine intoxication and probable exogenous contribution from wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing.”
