Examples of taser gun death...
An eighth fatality has been linked to the Taser electric stun gun. A Nevada coroner says shocks from a Taser contributed to the death of 29-year-old Jacob Lair during a struggle with authorities.
Thousands of police departments buy Tasers on a claim that the electric stun guns will instantly take down suspects without inflicting harm. That assertion of safety has generated record sales for Taser International Inc., which markets its guns as alternatives to deadly force and says its goal is to arm every police officer in America.
But an Arizona Republic investigation has revealed that Taser's claims are based on autopsy reports the company never possessed. For years, Taser officials cited these reports as proof that the stun guns never caused "injury or death to another human being." Now, officials acknowledge they never had those autopsy reports and didn't start collecting them until April.
The Republic's review of autopsies and interviews with medical examiners found Tasers have been linked to at least five deaths. Medical examiners in three cases involving suspects who died in police custody cited Tasers as a cause or a contributing factor in the deaths. In two other cases, Tasers could not be ruled out as a cause of death.
These deaths raise questions about a weapon police routinely use on those who refuse to obey commands. Kelly Deitrich, whose brother, Raymond Siegler, died in February after being shot by police with a Taser in a Minneapolis group home for mentally ill people, said Taser's explanations are misleading. "That is the polite way to say it," she says. "The other way to say it is they are full of you-know-what."
So many other examples also...
Taser Gun Causes Death
The Cook County (Chicago) medical examiner's office ruled on Friday that a 54-year-old man died as a result of a five-second and then 57-second electrical shock from a Taser. The "primary cause of Hasse's death was electrocution" and the secondary cause of death was methamphetamine. Taser contends its devices are "non-lethal." Amnesty International has determined 129 people died after "electro-shock" from Tasers between June 2001 and July 15 2005. Approximately 7,000 police agencies use Tasers; lawyers filed a class action lawsuit against Taser in Chicago last week. Local, state or federal legislation is sure to follow.
