WEST WARWICK — The autopsy is complete, but officials are still waiting for test results to find out what caused the death of Mark D. Jackson, who died while in police custody Friday night.

Meanwhile, the five officers involved in the arrest have been removed from patrols, with their shifts covered by other officers working overtime, according to West Warwick Police Chief Paul A. Villa.

“They are still on administrative duty as of right now,” Villa said yesterday, “and, depending on what we find from the autopsy reports, that will be reviewed at some point.”

The state medical examiner completed the autopsy examination yesterday, said Andrea Bagnall Degos of the Department of Health, but is not releasing any details pending the results of toxicology reports. Those tests could take up to three months to complete, Bagnall-Degos said.

The Rhode Island State Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Jackson’s death and completed a number of interviews yesterday, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, which is assisting in the investigation.

About 11 p.m. on Friday, officers got a report of someone damaging the sign in front of Joyal’s Liquor Store at 90 West Warwick Ave.

Jackson, 47, had stayed at his mother’s apartment next door and was walking in the back of the store when a police officer arrived. When an officer asked Jackson to remove his hands from his pockets, he wouldn’t, according to the police. The officer called for backup, and another officer showed up.

As the officers approached, Jackson became “combative,” according to the police. In the scuffle that followed, officers were knocked to the ground. The police used pepper spray on Jackson, and when that didn’t work, they said they used expandable batons to hit Jackson’s legs.

Three additional officers would arrive on the scene before they were able to handcuff Jackson. The police said that Jackson was speaking to officers as he was being placed into the cruiser.

However, neighbors said they saw Jackson’s motionless body lying face down as the final group of officers pulled up. Witnesses said officers had to lift Jackson and put him into the cruiser.

By the time officers arrived at police headquarters, officers said, Jackson wasn’t breathing. The police said they began CPR and called the paramedics. Jackson was taken to Kent Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The department notified the attorney general’s office immediately after the death, and an official from that office was at the scene within 90 minutes of the incident, Healey said.

Villa said that the entire department, including the officers involved in the arrest, is cooperating with the investigation. A preliminary report of the incident has been completed by officers, but is not being released because of the ongoing investigation, he said. Two West Warwick police detectives have been “assigned to do legwork” for investigators, Villa said.

Villa would not release the names of the officers involved in the arrest yesterday, saying only they all worked on the 4 p.m. to midnight shift.

The evening shift is the busiest shift in the West Warwick Police Department. By law, the department is required to have five patrol cars on the road during that time. That means that Jackson’s arrest effectively took all of the officers on duty that night — except possibly the shift supervisor — to complete.

With an entire patrol on administrative duty, Villa said, the shift will be covered by overtime work. The West Warwick Police Department has 60 officers, including high-ranking officials, patrol, detectives and community policing.

Jackson, of 777 Cowesett Rd. in Warwick, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the mid-1980s, after he moved to Rhode Island from Pittsburgh, according to his family. His niece Heather Petro said he no longer took his medication because it “made him feel tired and lethargic and he felt better when he was not taking them.”

Jackson is the fourth person described as having mental-health issues to die in a police-related incident this year.

tbuford@projo.com