Woman aids police with her own “personal Taser” www.privateofficer.com

Woman aids police with her own “personal Taser” http://www.privateofficer.com

LITHONIA, Ga.(metro Atlanta) Jan 26 2009 — Tanisha Cross never thought the Taser stun gun she received for Christmas would come in handy so soon.
Cross said she was headed to Wal-Mart in Lithonia with her mother when she noticed a DeKalb County police officer in distress.
“I just told my mom pull over, … let’s try to help,” said Cross.
The 20-year-old mother, who received the taser as a gift from her husband, said she kept it in a diaper bag.
ASHLEY HAYES: Atlanta Woman Uses Taser Gun To Help Officer In Distress
Cross said while others gathered to watch, she sprung into action.
“I went straight for my kid’s diaper bag and I got it and asked it if he [officer] wanted me to do it and he said, ‘Yea,’” said Cross.
Cross said the officer had a hard time defending himself because the attacker had taken the officer’s radio and managed to rub pepper spray in the officer’s face and eyes.
Jolting the attacker, Cross’ timing couldn’t have been better. Cross said she tasered the suspect in his arms and legs.
Cross said she stunned the attacker to where the officer regained his composure and fought back until a security guard came to their aid.
“He’s brave,” she said. “He did his best to keep him from his gun. He handled the situation very well. I was just glad I could help him,” said Cross.
Cross doesn’t consider herself a hero.

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Police use Taser on 14 yr old during mall disturbance www.privateofficer.com

Police use Taser on 14 yr old during mall disturbance http://www.privateofficer.com

Salt Lake City Utah Jan 12 2009
salt lake tribune
Salt Lake City police used a stun gun on a 14-year-old boy after they say he refused to leave the Gateway Mall and resisted arrest on Saturday night.
Around 8 p.m. Saturday, police said a group of kids was trying to pick a fight with a second group.
Gateway security officers asked the group to leave the mall, but they refused and at least one boy actively fought with officers, police said.
“He said his group was waiting for someone, and they were not leaving until they did so — despite what police and security officers were telling them to do,” said Salt Lake City Police Department Det. Dennis McGowan.
The boy cursed at officers and clenched his fists, taking “an aggressive stance,” McGowan said.
McGowan said the boy refused to turn around to be arrested and pushed back at officers.
“He wouldn’t go on the ground, and officers were unable to gain control,” McGowan said. “Apparently they were falling on top of each other, so as a last resort, the officer pulled out his Taser.”
McGowan said officers told the boy “over and over” to stop resisting and “had no choice but to deploy the Taser.”
“It was for this person’s safety as well as the officer’s safety,” he said. “It’s much safer for them to do that versus someone getting beaten, or both parties getting beaten badly.”
McGowan said the officers tried to work with the boy, and police were justified in elevating the force for the boy’s own
protection.
“A Taser only lasts for a few seconds,” McGowan said. “Once the shock is over, it’s as if nothing happened. The person totally recovers. We use minimum force when necessary — that’s what we try to do on every single call.”
The boy was taken to a local juvenile detention center.

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Man dies from fall after being Tasered www.privateofficer.com

Man dies from fall after being Tasered http://www.privateofficer.com

NEW YORK Sept 26 2008
A naked, distraught man fell to his death after a police officer shocked him with a Taser stun gun as he stood on a building ledge, authorities said.
The man, Iman Morales, 35, was pronounced dead at a hospital after his nearly 10-foot fall Wednesday. Police said he suffered serious head trauma when he sit the sidewalk.
The death of the man, who witnesses and neighbors said had become distraught and had threatened to kill himself earlier in the day, brought renewed focus to the use of Tasers by the police.
It also raised questions over why Morales was shocked with the stun gun when there was no inflatable bag placed on the sidewalk to catch him if he fell.
“They didn’t try to brace his fall. They did nothing. I’ve seen a lot of things in my time. But what they did was wrong,” said neighbor Kirk Giddens, 39, in Thursday editions of the Daily News.
In a video posted on the Web site of the New York Post, Morales can be seen clambering along a building’s fire escape until he reaches a ledge and begins swinging a large fluorescent light bulb at officers below. One of the officers raises a Taser at Morales, who freezes and topples over headfirst.
Police spokesman Paul J. Browne told The New York Times that Morales’ death was under investigation. He said that it was unclear whether an inflatable bag had been requested or whether it had not yet arrived at the scene.
Officers are allowed to use Tasers if they believe psychologically distressed people are a danger to themselves or to others.
Thousands of city police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 35 feet and deliver 50,000-volt shocks to immobilize people

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Teen gets Tasered by security, mother wants answers www.privateofficer.com

Teen gets Tasered by security, mother wants answers http://www.privateofficer.com

Cahokia IL July 12 2008
Kyle T. Greene

Ntl. Assoc. Private officers

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A mother claims her 13-year-old son was struck in the back with a Taser by a Cahokia park security officer, and she cannot get anyone with the city to address her concerns.
Among them, she said her son did nothing to provoke such an action, and that even if he did, she questioned whether it is proper for security guards to go around Tasering children.
“I want to know why the park ranger used the Taser on my son,” said Hallie Smith, 32, of Belleville. “I went to the ranger and he cursed me out. No one has even bothered to come to my home and discuss anything with me. My son is a juvenile … this is ridiculous. Who gives park rangers authority to use Tasers on juveniles?” Smith said.
In Cahokia, the park security guards are not under the Police Department but rather the mayor’s office. The security guard involved in the incident, which occurred about two weeks ago, was not identified.
Mayor Frank Bergman said he understands that allegations have been made, but he does not know all of the circumstances. He said his office is investigating.
“I don’t know whether he was tased. It’s an allegation. We will look at both sides, the park ranger’s and the alleged victim’s,” he said.
Bergman said park rangers are at Cahokia Park alone and have to determine whether their safety is threatened.
“Our No. 1 priority is safety for everyone who comes to the village,” he said. “Everything has to be based on what the threat is at the time. The ranger felt violated and threatened by them (Smith’s son and his friends) being there.”
Bergman said according to information he’s received, Smith’s son was saying inappropriate things to some girls on a swim team, then repeated them to the park ranger. He also allegedly was using racial slurs.
Smith gave a different account of what happened:
“He was there with other kids,” she said. “One of the older kids was cussing out one of the younger kids. The lady in charge of the pool heard the cussing. She turned around, looked at my son and asked him if he was talking to her. The lady called the park ranger over. A male park ranger came over to where the kids were. He used racial slurs and profanity in talking to the children. When my son got up to leave, the ranger hit him in the back with a Taser,” Smith said.
A Taser sends strong jolts of electrical shock currents through the body and can render an adult helpless for several minutes.
Smith said she has made numerous attempts to reach Bergman, but her calls have not been returned. Bergman said he will talk to Smith when he has all of the facts.

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Hospital violated patient’s rights when he was Tasered www.privateofficer.com

Hospital violated patient’s rights when he was Tasered http://www.privateofficer.com

By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Northfield MN. June 18 2008 – 10:59 PM
When the emergency room staff at Northfield City Hospital thought an obviously disturbed patient was about to turn violent, they did what many hospitals do in that situation: They called the police.
In this instance, officers used a Taser to shock the man. The patient dropped to the floor, was injected with medications and transferred to the psychiatric unit at another hospital, according to an official report about the February incident.
Now federal and state health officials have cited the Northfield hospital for violating the patient’s rights.
The hospital and the Minnesota Hospital Association are perplexed by the ruling, which could have implications throughout the state.
“They did nothing wrong here,” said David Feinwachs, general counsel for the association. He said it’s not uncommon for hospitals to call police in cases like this. “And now they’re being faulted for it.”
The Minnesota Department of Health, which investigated the incident, cited the hospital for failing to protect the patient’s safety. Under federal law, the hospital could lose Medicare funding if the problem isn’t corrected.
“It wasn’t an easy case,” said Darcy Miner, director of complaints monitoring for the department. Still, she said, health officials concluded that “something happened that shouldn’t have” and that the hospital could have done more to avoid it. “We felt that in this situation, that level of force was not warranted,” she said.
The incident tapped into growing concern about the use of Tasers on patients who turn violent or dangerous. Just last month, Canadian police came under fire for using a Taser on a bedridden 82-year-old man, who had become delirious and wielded a knife at a hospital in British Columbia. The American Psychiatric Association has called for national guidelines on Taser use in hospitals.
The Northfield case was the first time a Taser was used on a patient there, according to Ken Bank, the hospital’s president. The patient, who was not identified, was not injured beyond the initial Taser shock, he said.
The Health Department’s criticism, he said, “came as a bolt out of the blue to us.” He said the hospital has had the same policy for handling unruly patients for 20 years.
“It’s difficult to figure out how to handle those fairly rare situations differently than we’re doing now,” he said. “We don’t have round-the-clock security. Most hospitals under 100 beds don’t. So that’s what we’ve been struggling with.”
Hours of effort
It was just after 2 a.m. when the patient arrived at Northfield’s emergency room on Saturday, Feb. 23. He began pacing the halls, rambling incoherently and yelling, according to the Health Department’s investigative report.
A nurse heard him talking about “poison coming out of the walls, poison in his blood and about Jesus.” The staff tried to calm him, using “verbal deescalation.” But he became more agitated. The nurse called police, fearing he “could go off and hurt someone,” the report said.
Two officers arrived about 7 a.m., and tried to get him to return to his hospital room. An officer shot him with a Taser, which uses electric shocks to temporarily stun a person. The patient never lost consciousness, “but went to the floor and said he would cooperate,” the report said.
He was cuffed, given several medications and held in the emergency room until 8:15 a.m., when he was transferred by ambulance to an unnamed hospital with a psychiatric bed.
Northfield’s police chief, Mark Taylor, defended the use of the Taser. Department policy says the Taser can be used “if an officer feels that either he is in danger or someone else is,” Taylor said. “In this case, that’s what we feel happened.”
In April, the Health Department investigated after receiving a complaint about the incident. Its report, dated May 7, cited the hospital for violating three federal rules. Although it gave no specifics, it referred to rules on the use of restraints and the patient’s rights “to receive care in a safe setting.”
Bank, president of the Northfield hospital, was stunned.
Feinwachs, of the Hospital Association, was outraged.
“To suggest that somehow seeking the intervention of law enforcement is an impropriety on the part of a health care provider seems to be illogical,” Feinwachs said. “In case of bizarre circumstances, throw yourself in harm’s way before you call the police? That’s the way I read it.”
Miner, of the Health Department, said that isn’t the intent.
They didn’t cite the hospital for calling police, she said. “Our question was what was happening in those five hours before the police arrived.”
She said the staff needs more training in deescalation techniques. They report seeing an average of two patients a day for psychiatric or alcohol-related problems. “They knew that they should expect psychiatric patients and be prepared for them, and they were not,” she said.
Since then, Northfield City Hospital has hired two security guards. They will try to negotiate a plan for future incidents with the Health Department.
“It is absolutely our commitment to make sure that we’re providing a safe environment for patients,” Bank said.

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Mother uses baby to shield self from taser www.privateofficer.com

MOTHER USES BABY TO SHIELD SELF FROM TASER http://www.privateofficer.com

OKLAHOMA CITY OK. Oct. 14, 2007– An infant was hit in the hand by a Taser fired by a bounty hunter, but apparently not shocked, when the child’s mother used the infant as a shield, police said.
The mother, whose name was not released, was later arrested for child endangerment.
Preliminary police reports said the bounty hunter had tracked a man to a car at an apartment complex in northwest Oklahoma City Friday night.
“At some point, the bounty hunter felt it was necessary to deploy the Taser, and a female in the car apparently held her infant up to shield herself from the Taser,” said Sgt. Keith Vance.
One of the Taser probes lodged into the infant’s hand, but the child was not shocked, since the other probe missed, Sgt. Vance said.
Emergency responders were called to the scene about 6:30 p.m. Friday to treat a child with a bloody hand.
During the commotion of the child being hit by the Taser probe, the man, whom police identified as Joe Hawkins, tried to drive away and crashed his car at the complex, Sgt. Vance said.
After wrecking the car, Mr. Hawkins, 28, escaped after he jumped out of the car and ran away, dropping a firearm in the process, police said.
Police also arrested a second, unidentified woman, who they discovered was listed as an escapee, though it was not clear from where she escaped, Sgt. Vance said.
The bounty hunter, who also was not identified, apparently did nothing wrong, according to Sgt. Vance.
“He can certainly use a Taser if he feels there is a need to do so,” Sgt. Vance said.

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