A Southern California border agent charged with assaulting a Long Beach police officer outside a restaurant and resisting arrest last month died just two days after his most recent court appearance.
According to the coroner’s office in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, Isaiah Anthony Hodgson died Friday. The manner of death is still under investigation.
Earlier in the week, Hodgson, 29, appeared in court and had a preliminary hearing set for late September, according to court documents.
He faced seven charges, including three counts of resisting arrest, one count of battery with injury to a police officer, one count of carrying a concealed firearm in public, one count of carrying a concealed firearm and one count of carrying a loaded firearm.
He faced seven years in prison if he were convicted. He pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to court records.
The charges stem from an incident on July 7 when Hodgson was off-duty and alleged to have been unruly at a popular boardwalk destination filled with restaurants and shops.
He was accused of entering a women’s restroom at a restaurant and approaching a woman who saw his gun and firearm magazine. Witnesses told police he left the restaurant soon after the woman told the restaurant’s manager there was a drunk man with a gun inside the women’s bathroom.
According to investigators, security guards near the restaurant repeatedly told Hodgson to leave, but he refused. When Long Beach police officers arrived, he remained obstinate and would not cooperate, authorities said.
“As Hodgson resisted arrest, he allegedly became agitated and physical with the officers, injuring one of them,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at the time.
“The conduct exhibited by Mr. Hodgson, a border patrol agent who has the duty to uphold the law and protect its citizens, is unacceptable and deeply troubling,” Hochman added in a statement. “No one is above the law, regardless of their position or badge.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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