Can someone send me a link to a story where a person died from a taser?

CGIV76

Your information is totally correct. Not everyone understands the difference between amperage, and voltage. Unfortunately, no matter what a Police Officer does, they will be considered wrong by a lot of people. Thanks for trying.

The Girl Is A Geek

http://www.alternet.org/rights/68626/

There you go. Electricity most certainly DOES effect the heart. Ask anyone who has seen a crash cart in use.

THE HEART IS A MUSCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a whole entry on the effects of electricity on the human body.

Read and learn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_shock

Kevy

Yeah people hear the number 50,000-500,000 think automatically that it can kill, which in reality it cannot. If it had any sort of significant chance of death, they would not taze officers during training. (We don't get shot when we have firearms training.)

The key to it's less than lethal use is the THIN wires. They do allow many volts at a time, but very very very few amps. (as stated above less than .0021) This is why they can use the high voltage. This is also why the wires are so small. As to not allow too many amps. This is also why Defibrillators have such a large area to place on the body, to allow more amps across the heart.

AmericanAngle.blogspot.com

Very Good question, Trooper! No one is going to be able too meet your challenge.

The taser, in many municipalities is considered a less than lethal weapon. A change from non-lethal.

The device, however, hasn't been proven to be the cause of death, but the stress from the device can exacerbate a pre-existing condition. The pre-existing condition can be from a medical condition such as a heart ailment.

More often than not, the medical condition is a result from drug abuse.

jenny

I'm so glad you post the facts about the taser, I'm just tired of hearing " Tasers are dangerous, they can kill", death due to taser use, is because of the drug or alcohol in the system, it is painful, but does not kill.

sun_shinevt

We've had several in Atlanta, Georgia - It can kill you if you have a heart condition or other health issues. Here are a couple of articles:

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=47759

http://www.policeone.com/police-products/less-lethal/taser/articles/89933/

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=32445

Baby Buttons

Excellent question.
And for those of you who complain about the person dying because they had some pre-existing condition; if the officer can't get them to comply with certain basic requests like,
"Get out of the car: "put your hands up where I can see them" "put down your weapon" etc.,
Do you really think that the Officer will be in a position to say:
"Since you aren't complying, I will have to tase you. By the way, do you have a heart condition or any other pre-existing medical problems?"
Additionally, Taser International has NEVER been successfully sued for wrongful death. It isn't the weapon, it is the person being tased.
It isn't the Officer, it is the arrestee refusing to comply with a lawful order given by the Officer.
Take responsibility for yourselves and your actions.

Super Fantastic

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1646403220071016

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/specials/popular/article.aspx?s=popular&storyid=68060

i found 3 or 4 more ... a couple of which occurred in Canada. Them mounted police mean business

celvin

http://www.newzealandnews.net/story/302505

speedy g

Try this link:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/10/15/taser-death.html
Good Luck.

Deb S (SFECU) pray4revival

Here's one: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071025.wtaser1026/BNStory/National/home

You can also do a google search, put in the words, "taser, death". You will get a whole list of sites to read.

spdy

"While in most cases deaths have continued to be attributed to factors other than the taser, such as "excited delirium" associated with drug intoxication or violent struggle, in 23 cases coroners have listed the use of the taser as a cause or a contributory factor in death.

In three cases in 2005, the taser was listed as a primary cause of death."
ive taken this from amnesty internationals website. Heres the link if u wish to review the full article:
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAMR510392006

Basically, its still undecided whether or not they cause death, but if a food was linked to so many dying do u think they would still have it on the shelf pending an investigation...or would they thoroughly investigate first and then decide if its safe. That what they should do with tasers. Too many police are on a control trip with this thing.

lizzie

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0730taser30.html

Studbolt is a P8riot

Many people have died after being tasered; feel free to do your own research (my favorite is the video footage of "The Reverend"; 23 shots with a taser killed him dead). Of course Taser Int'l and taser supporters always point to "other factors" when defending the use thereof, however that fails to address the "but for" argument: if they had not been tasered, would they still have died?

Bullets don't kill either: it's the loss of blood or organ failure that kills a gunshot victim.

chloe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111801282.html

Aviator - THE Resolution

Tasers can be lethal. But it happens in so few cases, that it is not considered a lethal weapon. The idea is that the shock can trigger other things that would not normally be triggered, and cause death. The most common would be heart problems. But it is extremely rare that tasing someone would result in death. And there is probably just as high as risk of death if you were to wrestle with someone rather then use a taser.

And the heart is a muscle.

Homer 133

I understand their are situations that the taser could save a life, but whatever happened to being a man and stepping up to each situation individually with patience and understanding. The taser is used quite frivolously and it is ridiculous in many situations. Just know you are taking a risk of killing someone with it, so be wise in your actions please. You say it only affects muscles, but the heart is a muscle vital to survival. You can't possibly know all the pre-existing conditions of everyone when you first meet them, so the taser should be the absolute second to last resort. You are trained in hand to hand combat and some psychological training as well, so use your training before you decide it is just easier to tase someone. That's lazy police work in my opinion and can cost lives.

jennyáƒ¦

She did not die. She was forced down on her stomach. The officer did not know she was pregnant. She came to the police station wanting to give up custody of her 1 year old son. She became aggitated when the officer started asking questions about her son. She tried to leave with the child. The officer got a hold of the child, gave him to another officer then she got irrate and aggressive so he took her to the ground and he put the taser to her neck at tased her.
*****EDIT****
Trooper, You made it sound like you heard the woman from Ohio was killed when tased. I just didn't read further. I never do....

andre

Accidental or no. A human life is more valuable than any politics. Now two lives are gone and a one year old is without a mother. Cop are no, no justification. God is the ultimate Cop.

WhereTheBuffaloRoam

Yeah you are right about that dieing instantly after being tazed stuff.
I thought recently a man got tazed up in this canadian airport and died, but that was 5 days later after being tazed. And then another, an inmate at this jail, tried to escape, he was tazed and 30 hours later he died.

People have a real problem listening anymore. The cop says to get down, you get down and say "yes sir".

The woman in ohio, didn't listen. She didn't disclose she was pregnant and she resisted police efforts. I say taze away and slap her a few times as well :)

"Don't taze me bro!!!"

Then listen up and obey!

Devontrit Whiteside

Okay Trooper here is one. This was a taser death ruled by the Cook County Medical Examiner in Chicago Illinois back in Februrary.

An autopsy report from the Cook County's Medical Examiner's Office attributed the death of Ronald Hasse, 54, to electrocution from two Taser jolts delivered by a Chicago police officer. The autopsy said methamphetamines contributed to Hasse's death.

Taser strongly criticized the Medical Examiner's Office in a statement Friday and said it will challenge the autopsy.

"We believe that the scientific and medical community will publicly challenge this conclusion based upon the lack of credible evidence," Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle wrote in an e-mail on Friday. "Taser International will seek a judicial review of the report and the basis for which those statements were made."

This is not the first time Taser has challenged a medical examiner. For years, Taser officials publicly said the stun gun was never cited in an autopsy report. But an Arizona Republic investigation last year revealed that Tasers have been cited repeatedly by medical examiners in death cases and that Taser did not start collecting autopsy reports until last April.

Taser officials later maintained that the medical examiners in those cases were wrong and did not have the credentials or expertise necessary to examine deaths involving stun guns. They now maintain that Tasers have never been cited by a medical examiner as "the sole cause of death."

The Republic has identified 140 cases of death in the United States and Canada following a police Taser shock since 1999. Of those, coroners said, Taser was a cause of death in four cases and a contributing factor in 10 cases. In four other cases, medical examiners said Taser could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

In his e-mail on Friday, Tuttle said Hasse's death should likely have been blamed on the methamphetamines.

"We sincerely hope that a groundless opinion will not overshadow the medical and scientific community's conclusions as to the lethal levels of methamphetamine use," he said in the statement. "Overlooking this as a primary cause of death contradicts the very nature and purpose of these known lethal values."

Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner Scott Denton said that drugs alone would not have caused Hasse's death. A five-second shock followed by a 57-second shock pushed Hasse "over the edge," Denton told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"That's extraordinary," Denton said. "He became unresponsive and died after this."

Hasse, a former securities trader who was supposed to go on trial in June in the burial of a body on an Indiana farm, confronted officers in a Chicago high-rise.

Police said they used the Taser on Hasse when he tried to kick and bite officers during a struggle. He also threatened to infect paramedics with HIV.

After Hasse's death, Chicago police halted plans for a Taser expansion. Denton told the Sun-Times that police should stop using Tasers on people who are acting psychotic or appear to be under the influence of drugs.

Denton, who grew up in Scottsdale, did not return The Republic's calls for an interview on Friday. According to a Web site for the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association, Denton has worked at the Office of the Medical Examiner of Cook County for nine years. He is also an assistant professor in the pathology department at Rush University Medical Center. He got his medical degree from the University of Arizona.

Denton told the Sun-Times that he reviewed thousands of pages of information provided by Taser. But he said his conclusion was also based on the findings of James Ruggieri, an electrical engineer who in February made a presentation to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in which he said Taser shocks could cause cardiac arrest.

Ruggieri, who is a forensic engineer and has consulted with police departments and the military on electrical accidents, said shocks from Taser could cause delayed ventricular fibrillation, the irregular heartbeat characteristic of a heart attack. He also said that multiple shocks from a Taser could cause someone to stop breathing and go into cardiac arrest. He said that many deaths involving Tasers have likely been wrongly dismissed as simple heart attacks or drug overdoses.

Taser has challenged Ruggieri's credentials and said its own medical and electrical experts dispute his findings. Taser maintains that its guns have undergone dozens of tests through universities and the Department of Defense, which support its claim of safety.

Tuttle said Friday that Denton should not have relied on "an unsubstantiated theoretical position of electrical safety as presented by James Ruggieri."

Ruggieri said that he doesn't know Denton. He said the doctor contacted him once in February to get a copy of his academy presentation. But Ruggieri said Friday that he is not surprised by the medical examiner's conclusion.

"It was only a matter of time," he said. "All of the impartial people - doctors, scientists, pathologists - took heed of this. They now have had facts to look at when presented with death cases involving Taser."

Taser, in a June 28 training bulletin, advised police that "repeated, prolonged and/or continuous exposures to the Taser may cause strong muscle contractions that may impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm."

In training classes and instruction manuals, Taser has previously told police to use repeated shocks to control a suspect.

The stun guns have been sold to more than 7,000 law enforcement agencies in the country and are credited with reducing injuries and deaths to suspects and officers and lowering the number of police shootings. But several law enforcement agencies, including the department in Birmingham, Ala., and the Lucas County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office, have pulled the guns from the street.

Last week, Dolton, Ill., filed a class-action lawsuit against Taser, becoming the first police department to take legal action over what it described as Taser's exaggerated claims of safety. The city said it paid $8,572 for stun guns that are too dangerous to use on the street.

Taser stock, which soared last year, dropped by a third this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced separate inquiries into the company's claims of safety.

Nicole

Fox News had a story about this on T.V not too long ago. Maybe you should contact them.

Free Radical

so bodily harm, excessive force, and negligence doesn't count, right?

so only if the cop kills someone is it an issue? yet you can be arrested for raising your voice or coughing on a cop (true story guy was arrested for assaulting an officer for coughing on him) but a cop has to KILL someone before anyone cares huh?

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