A border agent of South California accused of assaulting a Long Beach police officer outside a restaurant and resisting the arrest last month died only two days after his appearance in the most recent court.
According to the forensic office in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, Isaiah Anthony Hodgson died Friday. The way of death is still under investigation.
At the beginning of the week, Hodgson, 29, appeared before the court and had a preliminary hearing scheduled by the end of September, according to judicial documents.
He faced seven positions, including three charges of resisting arrest, a position of aggression with injuries to a police officer, a charge of carrying a hidden firearm in public, one with a hidden firearm and one of transporting a loaded firearm.
He faced seven years in prison if he was convicted. He declared himself innocent of all charges, according to judicial records.
The charges come from an incident on July 7 when Hodgson was out of service and had supposedly been rebellious in a popular Boardwalk destination full of restaurants and stores.
He was accused of entering a bath for women in a restaurant and approaching a woman who saw her weapon and firearms magazine. The witnesses told the police that he left the restaurant shortly after the woman told the restaurant manager that there was a drunk man with a gun inside the women’s bathroom.
According to the researchers, the security guards near the restaurant repeatedly told Hodgson to leave, but refused. When Long Beach’s police officers arrived, he remained stubborn and would not cooperate, the authorities said.
“While Hodgson resisted the arrest, he was supposedly agitated and physical with the officers, wounding one of them,” said Los Angeles County District, Nathan Hochman, at that time.
“The conduct exhibited by Mr. Hodgson, a border patrol agent who has the duty to defend the law and protect its citizens, is unacceptable and deeply worrying,” Hochman added in a statement. “No one is above the law, regardless of their position or badge.”
