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He felt the man's wrist under the stall door, and when he didn't get a pulse, called 911

Police say they are continuing to investigate just how a visiting Canadian came to die in the men's room at the Bell in Hand early on Sept. 18, his cell phone dropping to the floor after he had called a friend in Canada to complain he wasn't feeling well.

At a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning, BPD Sgt. Det. Paul Donovan said police have a photo of one of the men who may have gone into the men's room with the man earlier in the evening to do drugs, but do not yet have his ID. He said the possible suspect gave his Instagram URL to a woman he'd been chatting with during the bar's karaoke night - and that she in turn gave the link to police the next day. He added police are also awaiting a report from the medical examiner's office on the exact cause of death.

Through the bar's surveillance video and interviews with patrons - and the friend in Canada with whom the victim was talking on the phone as his life ebbed away - police say they have a good idea of the man's last hours.

Donovan said the man came to the bar alone and seemed to be having as good a time as everybody else in the fairly small crowd there for Tuesday-night karaoke. A bartender who served him a drink around 1:15 a.m. recalled him as "very normal, good conversation, a nice guy."

Not long after that, video shows him "engaged in conversation with a couple other males," with whom he then entered the bar's small men's room, Donovan said. Another patron entered the men's room shortly after, but told police he quickly left because they seemed to be "snorting some type of substance that he believed to be drugs," Donovan said.

After about ten minues, the victim and the other men exited the men's room. Around 1:45 a.m., he asked the bartender for another drink, but she said it was too late, because the bar was about to close.

He entered the men's room. Around 2 a.m., a bar worker noticed somebody in the stall in the men's room and heard him on the phone. The worker told him he needed to finish up because the bar was closing. The bar worker told the licensing board the man said "OK."

But he wasn't OK, Donovan said. Donovan said he was on the phone with a friend in Canada, telling him "he was in Boston, he had met some people and he had done some heroin." And he wasn't feeling well, he told his friend.

"He was starting to nod off," Donovan said. And then Donovan snapped his fingers: "The phone went dead. [The friend] wasn't able to re-establish contact."

Donovan said he contacted the man's friend by dialing the last number on his cell-phone history.

Bar manager Ryan Mulvoy told the board that around 2:20 a.m., he went into the men's room to clean it up and turn off the lights. He said he noticed a man's hand under the stall door. "I felt no pulse," he said. He dialed 911 and opened the door, to find the man sitting on the toilet, crouched forward, motionless.

The board decides Thursday whether to take any action against the Union Street bar for "permitting an illegality on premise." Donovan told the board he didn't think the bar could have done anything differently, but said he advised managers to try to step up visits to the men's room. The bar has hired a police consultant to train workers in recognizing drug impairment.

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Comments

Are bad, mmmkay?

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Maybe we should set up a buddy system where bars hire chaperones to follow around every individual patron to make sure they aren't breaking the rules. It will create more jobs and keep the licensing board happy. I'd say its the only reasonable solution if we're going to hold these establishments responsible rather than the individuals.

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I wonder though if the guy would have survived if he was discovered earlier and his friend called the bar.

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He might have lived if he'd been discovered earlier - but how would his friend have known which bar to call?

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I wonder if the guy would have lived if he didn't snort what he assumed was heroin in a shitty bar with people he didn't know....i wonder if he would have lived if he didn't go out that night. Hell, I wonder if he would have lived if he stayed in Canada.
Lots of useless wondering.

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Based on the report, but I am glad they had to go to the Licensing Board. Keeps things above board.

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Above board is the last thing I think of when I think of the Boston Licensing Board. Hire Dennis Quilty and you can pretty much do whatever you'd like. Hire someone else, and you'll get a 1 day suspension.

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