A young father died after making 98 calls in the space of six months to emergency services, telling police two days before his death that he spotted a man with a gun outside his home.
Thomas Owens, 26, was said to be behaving erratically outside the Baa Bar on Fleet Street, Liverpool city centre, just after midnight on Saturday, September 11 2021 and was searched by police for drugs but none were found. The officers suspected the man was under the influence of drugs before asking him to leave the premises, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The father-of-one was taken to Liverpool Hospital after reportedly being unwell following an arrest made by police. It was reported he suffered two cardiac arrests in the early hours of the morning.
Medical staff then discovered a blood-stained white paper sachet filled with cocaine lodged inside his throat as they carried out CPR. The 26-year-old was moved to ICU where he suffered another cardiac arrest and died on Sunday, September 12. A post-mortem found the cause of death to be cocaine toxicity.
An inquest heard Mr Owens struggled with a drug addiction and had been speaking with mental health specialists at both Royal Liverpool Hospital and Merseyside Police. He was also said to be in contact with Early Intervention in Psychosis Service after experiencing repeated paranoid hallucinations while under the influence of drugs.
He was said to have placed 98 calls to emergency services in the period between September 2020 and March 2021, citing that he "could see things moving inside his walls".
The inquest heard Mr Owens told a mental health nurse at A&E in May 2021 that he was "going round the bend" on cocaine and alcohol, and had been experiencing "mad things". On September 10, Mr Owens called 999 to report a man with a gun in a car park near his flat. Police attended the call but found the area reportedly deserted.
The inquest continues.
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