A veteran San Diego police officer died Saturday, Sept. 21, after being released from a Riverside County jail that morning following his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, authorities said.
Lawrence David Orso, 46, a resident of Murrieta, suffered what the San Diego Police Department described as a medical emergency. The department did not elaborate.
Orso was found unresponsive at 9:53 a.m. in a parking lot in the 30000 block of Auld Road in French Valley. Efforts to revive him were not successful.
Orso had been released from the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.
That jail is in the same block as a parking lot where a Riverside County Sheriff’s news release said Orso had been found, but the department would not say if the parking lot was immediately outside the jail.
The department also would not identify Orso’s employer.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Orso at 2:19 a.m. Saturday on Murrieta Hot Springs Road near the 215 Freeway, according to the county jail log. He was booked on misdemeanor counts of DUI and DUI with a blood-alcohol level greater than 0.08 at 6:42 a.m. and released at 8:26 a.m. after posting $2,500 bail.
A sheriff’s spokeswoman said all inmates receive screening for physical and mental health. The department would not say whether investigators learned what Orso did in the time after his release.
Orso’s death remains under investigation. There was no evidence of foul play, the sheriff’s news release said.
Orso was on the police force for 15 years after being hired in 2009. He worked as a patrol officer at the Mid-City and Northeastern divisions. Orso’s LinkedIn profile says he served in the Navy from 1996 to 2009, achieving the rank of Petty Officer.
“His family is in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,” said Lt. Travis Easter, a San Diego Police Department spokesman.
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