Buffalo Officer Gives Choking Suspect The Heimlich Maneuver . . . Suspect Coughs Up Baggie Of Cocaine

Now this sounds like a first-year criminal law examination on the parameters of search and seizure law. Buffalo officer Sean McCabe saved a man’s life by performing the Heimlich maneuver. The man, Bryan Ramos, then coughed up a baggie of cocaine and was promptly arrested for possession of narcotics.

Central District Officers Sean McCabe and Omar Rodriguez spotted Ramos sitting outside of a vacant house and approached him for questioning. Ramos then stuffed what appeared a cigarette pack into his mouth and resisted an effort to place him into custody (which required the use of pepper spray). He then had trouble breathing after the struggle. That is when McCabe gave him the hug of life — and Ramos gave McCabe the evidence that he needed.

Ramos, 23, is now charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and criminal trespass.

While Ramos blamed his cousin and said he was just holding the drugs, he was already wanted on a bench warrant for assault and harassment charges from 2012.

While courts are sometimes called up for orders to allow surgeries, most suspected “mules” who swallow baggies during international flights are simply given copious amounts of water and police allow nature to take its course. Evidence via Heimlich is fairly rare but entirely constitutional.