Officers cleared in man’s death

The district attorney has cleared three San Diego police officers of criminal liability in an incident in which a 40-year-old man suffered fatal injuries while resisting arrest in July 2006, the Police Department announced Monday.

Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis has concluded that officers Chris Tivinian, Michael DeWitt and Mark Brenner followed police procedure in using force to subdue Darryl Lamark Johnson, who had fled when officers sought to question him about riding a bicycle at night without a light. Police struck Johnson and used pepper spray and a chokehold when he refused to submit.

Johnson suffered a heart attack and was taken to a hospital, where he died a week later. An autopsy concluded that he died because of a lack of oxygen to the brain and that he had marijuana in his system, according to a letter from Dumanis to Police Chief William Lansdowne.

-- Tony Perry