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GREENSBORO — A High Point man was hospitalized in critical condition after police say he swallowed narcotics at a traffic stop and officers used Mace and a Taser to subdue him early Tuesday.

The Greensboro Police Department is investigating the actions of four officers in the stop: A.C. Bell, J.W. Thompson, E.H. Resecke and B.K. Crawford.

Paul Edward Thompson Jr.'s family doesn't understand how a traffic stop could leave the 24-year-old near death.

"My son, he's not the fighting type," Carrie Thompson said.

But an attorney for the Greensboro Police Officers Association said the officers involved did everything they could to keep Thompson from swallowing drugs.

"A Taser was used to attempt to bring him under control," said William Hill, attorney for the police association. "They didn't use it to punish him."

Police said an officer stopped Paul Thompson for a traffic violation about 3 a.m. Tuesday on Business 85 near Rehobeth Church Road.

When the officer approached the green Toyota Avalon driven by Thompson, he saw an open 40-ounce bottle of Heineken in the console and marijuana in Thompson's lap, Hill said.

The officer told Thompson to get out of the vehicle and he handcuffed him, Hill said. Another officer arrived.

"There's a big difference between being handcuffed and being under control," Hill said. "He can resist, kick, fight and cause harm to himself."

Police said a passenger told them that Thompson had swallowed some unidentified drugs.

The officers noticed Thompson chewing something and asked him to spit it out, Hill said. Thompson refused and tried to pull away from the officers, Hill said. The other two officers arrived to help.

Hill said officers used Mace and then a Taser to subdue Thompson.

Officers called for an ambulance, and while Thompson was on the way to Moses Cone Hospital, he began to have medical difficulties, according to a police news release.

His mother, Carrie Thompson, said her son has been unconscious since his arrival at the hospital and doctors told her they had to do CPR to revive him when he arrived.

"I thank God that he was able to get to the hospital," Carrie Thompson said. "The doctor says he don't think he's going to come through," she said.

Shanetta Bostic, cousin to Paul Thompson, was with Carrie Thompson in the waiting room. "I don't think there's nothing he could have done that would make him deserve this," Bostic said.

Paul Thompson attended Central High School in High Point. After his December release from prison on DWI, drug and weapons charges and the March death of a friend who was the victim of an armed robbery, Thompson had recommitted himself to doing the right thing, his cousin said.

He told his cousin: "I'm free. I want to do right," Bostic said.

Thompson's traffic stop was the second in four days that ended in the use of force by Greensboro police officers.

On Saturday, James Paschal Jr. was shot and killed when he verbally threatened Officer C.M. Schultheis, refused to show his hands and advanced on the officer, police said.

Assistant Police Chief Dwight Crotts said the proximity of the incidents doesn't show a trend.

The circumstances were different, and the officers used different types of force, he said.

"The reality is that it doesn't happen with a great deal of frequency," Crotts said.

"There's certainly no pattern," he said. "In between the two incidents, there has been hundreds of vehicle stops without incident."

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com