COEUR d'ALENE - A 30-year-old Spokane-area man who lost consciousness during an arrest Sunday night in Coeur d'Alene along Interstate 90 has now died, police said.

Nicholas Andrew Clason was taken to Kootenai Medical Center and admitted to the intensive care unit following the arrest, but he never regained consciousness. He was taken off life support and died at 2 a.m. Thursday, the Coeur d'Alene Police Department said in a news release.

"We are deeply saddened for the family of Nicholas Clason, and our thoughts and prayers are with them," said Police Chief Wayne Longo.

He said he requested a "multi-agency critical incident team review" to determine the man's exact cause of death, and his whereabouts prior to coming into contact with the police.

According to the release, officers responded about 10:45 p.m. to the westbound on-ramp at Fourth Street and I-90 to a report of a suicidal man.

An Idaho State Police trooper arrived on scene first and observed Clason "repeatedly trying to stab himself with a sharp object," police said.

The trooper ordered Clason to drop the object.

Coeur d'Alene police officers arrived on scene and also observed Clason "trying to harm himself."

Clason "exhibited unpredictable, agitated behavior consistent with a person under the influence of a narcotic," the release said.

After several minutes of verbal commands by officers to drop the object, Clason laid on the ground and officers were able to take him into custody.

Officers then became concerned that Clason had stopped breathing, police said.

They began CPR, and continued that until emergency medical personnel arrived.

Clason was taken to the hospital for what "appeared to be a possible drug overdose," police said.

Pam Joslin, an eyewitness to the incident who lives at Third Street and Homestead Avenue, said she saw Clason stumble around, jump on a pile of dirt and hop a fence to reach I-90.

"He was either drunk or (on) drugs, I don't know which," Joslin told The Press. "He was out of it ... We can see everything that happens on the freeway."

She said she went over to the Fourth Street ramp, looked down and saw Clason lying on the ground.

"He was definitely dead," she said Monday. "No doubt about that."

Police said the incident remains under investigation, and no further information will be released at this time.

An autopsy is to be requested by the investigating agency. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department is the lead agency in the follow-up investigation, police said.

In March 2008, Clason was arrested on the rooftop of a Post Falls home after he ran from police and held a knife to his own throat.

An officer in that incident climbed onto the roof with a ladder and deployed a stun gun on him.

After being evaluated at Kootenai Medical Center, Clason was booked into Kootenai County jail on a felony fugitive from justice warrant out of Washington, an Idaho Department of Correction parole violation warrant and obstructing police. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail in that case, after pleading guilty.

A Post Falls police officer at that time told The Press, "(Clason) has a history of battering law enforcement officers. The last time police contacted him he sprayed both the K-9 and its handler with pepper spray. He's a fighter."

While pleading guilty in that case, Clason told the judge he had been off his "meds" for five days before the rooftop incident.

"I don't do well off my meds," he told the court, according to minutes from the hearing.

Clason had been booked into the Kootenai County jail eight times since 2001 by the time he encountered Post Falls police in that incident.

He has been booked into jail for aggravated battery, possession of marijuana and paraphernalia, obstructing, contempt, eluding, driving while suspended, battery on a police officer and police animal, burglary and assisting in escape.

On Christmas day in 1999, he was busted for disturbing the peace, according to court records.

Staff writer Nick Rotunno contributed to this story.