By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

AVONDALE - Leaders of Cincinnati's chapter of the NAACP say they're considering options - including legal action - to try to stop African-American males from dying at the hands of police.

Chapter President Calvert Smith said the culture of the Cincinnati Police Department has to change and Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen has to apply laws equitably.

He made his remarks as the NAACP released a report Wednesday on the death of Nathaniel Jones last November while police tried to arrest him.

Jones, 41, who was black, died in November after a videotaped struggle with officers who hit him repeatedly with their batons. Allen determined that the six officers involved did not commit a crime.

Smith said the lack of punishment condones the use of excessive force by officers against "one targeted group of people - African-Americans."

Eighteen African-American males have died in police incidents since 1995.

The NAACP hired former Houston medical examiner Dr. Joye Carter to review the autopsy. Carter concluded that Jones was suffocated, Smith announced at a news conference.

Carter was chief medical examiner in Houston, where she moved in 1996 after being the first female chief medical examiner in Washington, D.C. She is now a consultant and author.

Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Carl Parrott also concluded that Jones' position - he was left lying for some time on his large stomach - contributed to his death. Other factors cited by Parrott included obesity, ingestion of the drug PCP, cocaine and heart disease.

Smith said the officers' actions should constitute a crime: "Their actions clearly resulted in his death, his demise."

Neither the police department nor Allen would comment.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com