Jailed Man Dies From Rattlesnake Bite

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. - A 42-year-old man died of a rattlesnake bite after he was detained in a jail cell on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation for hours before being taken to the hospital.

Luthur Danzuka died early Aug. 5. He had been bitten by the snake hours earlier, but authorities assumed he was drunk.

"They said, `Oh, he's not bit. He's just drunk," said William Wainanwit, 60, a lifelong resident of the reservation who was with Danzuka immediately before and after the bite.

While at the jail, officers noted that Danzuka's right arm was swollen and that he was having difficulty breathing. He died shortly after.

The FBI has begun an investigation into the death, while five public safety employees from the reservation have been placed on administrative leave.

According to Wainanwit:

Danzuka stopped by Wainanwit's home shortly after 10 p.m. on Aug. 4 and asked for a ride home.

Wainanwit, who was talking with two neighbors at the time, said he didn't have enough gas. Danzuka, who had been drinking but was not slurring his words or stumbling, said that was OK and began walking away.

A minute or so later, Wainanwit heard a yell and then found Danzuka back at his door.

"He was holding his arm, and then we saw the blood coming out of his arm, out of the fang marks. We asked, `What happened?' He said, `I got bit by a rattlesnake,' " Wainanwit said.

A neighbor got a dog collar to use as a tourniquet, while Wainanwit called 911. A tribal dispatcher sent medical and police units to the scene.

But after questioning Danzuka and the others, and consulting by phone with Mountain View Hospital staff in Madras, medics were unable to determine "with any certainty that there was the presence of any snakebite wound," according to a prepared statement from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Wainanwit said the ambulance sat in front of his house for 20 minutes, and neither he nor his neighbors could figure out why Danzuka wasn't being rushed to the hospital.

He said one of the attendants finally opened the door and said Danzuka hadn't been bitten, but had scratched his arm on barbed wire and was just drunk. Police handcuffed Danzuka and took him away in a patrol car - and off to the Warm Springs Jail for observation.

Death by snakebite is rare in Oregon. The last person known to have died of it was a 52-year-old Grant County rancher who was bitten in July 1991. Rattlesnakes in the Northwest generally aren't large enough to produce enough venom to kill a person.

Deaths are more common in the South and Southwest, where rattlers can be 5 feet or longer.

Still, Northwest snakebites aren't rare, experts say, and it's not unusual for the person bitten to be drunk - often, they're bitten precisely because their judgment has been impaired by drink.