CarnalNation

Gay porn performer Dustin Michaels (real name Andrew Grande) died in Florida early Saturday morning after police watched him choke on a bag of marijuana. A reality TV crew riding with the police filmed the whole incident, which was then broadcast on a local news station.  Michaels had most recently performed for Naked Kombat (NSFW)

Police responded to a disturbance call at the Executive Inn in Panama City, Florida, where Grande allegedly pushed a female friend. When deputies tried to arrest him, he allegedly tried to swallow a baggie full of pot, at which point police shot him with a taser and he began choking. The baggie wasn't dislodged until an ambulance came, and Grande was pronounced dead shortly after at a local hospital.

Seriously, this is a terrible way to die. Choking to death while police taser you and a reality TV crew films the whole thing? That's awful. Worse, the whole incident was broadcast on local news station WJHG, with a reporter creepily narrating the whole thing as it happened.

Police, perhaps unsurprisingly, are denying responsibility and claiming that the whole incident was very stressful to officers and to the camera crew.  At a press conference, Sheriff Frank McKeithen explained:  "[H]e pretty much ended up taking his own life by ingesting this item that was stuck in his throat. He therefore, in front of these deputies, dies and there is nothing they can do."

All three deputies are currently on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Zoo Productions makes the TV show Speeders, which follows cops around as they pull people over for traffic violations. (They're also the company responsible for Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader, Redneck Dreams, and Tila Tequila's Spring Break Fantasy Couple.)  It's unclear whether they plan to air the footage on TV again.

(via Joe.My.God)