Londonderry Man Tasered After Swallowing Cocaine

A Londonderry man faces numerous charges after he was arrested in Salem for crack cocaine possession and later ingested the crack during the booking process.

Salem Police charged Daniel Brackesy, 39, with felonies for crack possession and falsifying physical evidence and other offenses of possession of drugs in a motor vehicle, simple assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and various motor vehicle violations.

At about 2:05 p.m. Friday, Salem Police stopped a vehicle on South Policy Street for "several traffic violations including no front plate, defective brake lights and misuse of license plate," police said.

While investigating, police said they found "a small amount of crack cocaine and accompanying paraphernalia."

Brackesy was taken into custody without incident and was transported to police headquarters. After police took the handcuffs off Brackesy to process him, police said "the suspect dove to a counter in the booking room and grabbed the bag of crack trying to swallow it."

An officer began fighting with Brackesy, trying to keep him from swallowing the bag, but he was able to swallow it "and continue to violently struggle" with the officer.

Eventually the officer was able to deploy his Taser on Brackesy and place him in handcuffs once again, police said.

Salem Fire responded to the booking room, treating Brackesy for a laceration to the back of his head suffered from a fall while he was Tasered.

After being transported to Parkland Medical Center, Brackesy "started exhibiting signs of overdose and life threatening conditions and was immediately put to sleep and given a charcoal cocktail to offset the drug overdose," police said.

Brackesy was released on $50,000 personal recognizance later that day, police said.