What Do Illinois, New Mexico and New York Have in Common? Death by Taser

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 8:26 AM on March 20, 2008.

A couple of you emailed this one in for the Taser files — I’m sure there are plenty more where this came from.

A man died Tuesday night after Chicago police shocked him with a Taser stun gun because he was combative during an arrest on the West Side, authorities said Wednesday morning.

Police sources say the man was on drugs and “acting suspiciously,” walking away from police near the 2600 block of South Trumbull Avenue in the South Lawndale neighborhood. When police tried to stop him, he was combative, and was sprayed with a chemical spray and shocked with the gun, sources said.

…The Taser used was one of the department’s newer models, equipped with a camera that allows the incident to be videotaped. Investigators will be reviewing that tape, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department.

A new and improved model, you don’t say? Now the suspect had a rap sheet and was a known gang member, so we’re not talking about a choir boy. But the issue here is that a “non-lethal” weapon seems to be proving itself to be dangerous. In this case, the police would have been better off shooting the guy in the arm or leg in a non-fatal area than Tasing him, but because the device is being used at what seems like the drop of a hat, we’re seeing more incidents like this.

Like what happened in Roswell, New Mexico.


KOB.com:

A confrontation between officers and the suspect, Javiar Aguilar, ensued Thursday afternoon when Aguilar allegedly made threats to his health care providers. Police say Aguilar was mentally-ill.

…”When they responded and advised him that he was going to be taken to a mental health facility for treatment, he refused to go,” Roswell Deputy Police Chief Scott Douglass said.

Douglass said the confrontation turned physical and officers had to use pepper spray and a stun gun to subdue Aguilar. Authorities then took him to Eastern New Mexico Medical Center where he died 40 minutes later.

Or this incident in Clay, NY:

A 37-year-old man died Monday night after a Clay police officer used a Taser on the man, police said.

Christopher H. Jackson, of 4804 Norstar Blvd. Apartment 213D, was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital Monday after he was hit by one cycle of a police Taser, Clay Police Commission Owen Honors said today.

…The Clay officer told Jackson “three or four times” that he was going to use his Taser on him, Honors said. Jackson was in his bedroom when he was Tasered.

Honors believes it took only one cycle of the Taser to get Jackson under control. That information is stored on a chip inside the X26 Taser model issued to police. Jackson was not carrying a weapon, but he was using his hands to assault the officer, Honors said.

Officers placed Jackson in handcuffs. Then they noticed Jackson, who was conscious and breathing at that time, was not responding to their questions, police said. At that point, police requested paramedics. The paramedics responded and began assessing Jackson, who went into cardiac arrest.

And in the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not department, we’ve got a case of someone being tased for “aggressive language.” From Australia:

POLICE are investigating claims an officer tasered a handcuffed man three times in the Cleveland watchhouse last year to “shut him up”.

…Mr Brown admitted he lost control when police locked his sister up so he began “using aggressive language”, telling officers to release her because she had done nothing wrong.

“A policeman unlocked my cell to what I thought was going to be frisked-processed while still handcuffed and during this process I was hit with a Taser gun three times in a row by an older policeman,” he said, according to the statement.

And our Taser video of the day - the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tased a disabled man who was face down and handcuffed - and then was punched in the face for good measure.



The man filed a complaint against the RCMP, but he died (in an unrelated accident) before the case was adjudicated.

***



You know what happened when police officers in Ottawa took Taser training classes? Use of the devices drops.

The use of Tasers, guns and physical force by Ottawa police dropped to the lowest level in years in 2007 -- the year after the service introduced a special premium for officers who regularly retake a course on the proper use of force.

Tasers were used only a dozen times by officers last year, said the police service’s 2007 use of force annual report, which was to be discussed at the Police Services Board meeting Monday night.

Hat tip to Taser of the Day.

Tagged as: police brutality, tasers

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.