BANGOR — Officials say a 32-year-old Bangor man died shortly after telling police he was high on a hallucinogenic drug known as “bath salts.”

Police say Ralph Willis was running around yelling at people on a Bangor street Friday evening.

When an officer arrived, police say Willis charged at him, got into a scuffle, broke a radio antenna off the back of his cruiser and smashed out the rear window. He then ran into a truck that was exiting a nearby funeral home.

While being taken to jail, Willis said he was on bath salts and “needed to get off them.”

A short time later, he was taken by ambulance from jail to Eastern Maine Medical for unknown medical reasons, where he was later pronounced dead.

Police say an autopsy is scheduled.


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