A Daytona Beach man caught fire after being tasered by police. He caught fire when a probe from a police Taser gun hit a butane lighter in his pocket and set him on fire
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Third Stun Gun Death in a Month in New Orleans Area
A man died about 36 hours after being subdued with a stun gun by St. Tammany Parish sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic disturbance at his home, authorities have revealed.
The case marks the third time in less than a month that a suspect has died after being shocked with a Taser gun in the New Orleans area.
Nashville Police Revise Taser Policy
Metro police sergeants are called in whenever a taser is needed. Beginning Friday, paramedics will also help subdue people who could be tasered.
This new policy is an effort to prevent deaths from excited delirium. Exited delirium can happen when a person is on drugs and has to be tasered because they are out of control.
Now, in those cases, police will restrain the suspect and a paramedic will inject a tranquilizer. Metro police revised their taser policy after Patrick Lee died last September.
In Wake of Taser Controversy, Manufacturer Opts for Shotgun Approach
With public uproar over taser misuse growing by the day, Taser International, the manufacturer of the controversial stun gun weapon is developing a new product line- a Taser shot gun The nation’s largest stun-gun manufacturer has found a new way to deliver electricity to the human body: a 12-gauge shotgun.
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International Inc. is developing the eXtended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile, or XREP, a shotgun shell designed to combine the blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun.
Canadian Cop Charged in Taser Incident
An Edmonton cop, who was once hailed as a hero for saving a man from a burning building, has been charged with assault after a teen was allegedly Tasered while in a police cellblock.
Family Deals With Life After Taser
The following story ran in The Globe and Mail newspaper:
Samantha Foldi faces life as a widow from her wheelchair. For nearly 10 years, since a car accident left her partially paralyzed, she relied on her husband Jim for so much. He quit his construction job to help with her rehab and to care for their four children. He once rescued them from a fire, lowering his wife to safety out a bedroom window.
Mr. Foldi, 39, died last summer — after a late-night confrontation with police. Officers fired a 50,000-volt taser stun gun 12 times during the struggle; it’s not known how many times he was hit.
Taser Found to Be 39 Times More Powerful than Manufacturer Claims!
In an article reported this morning in the Arizona Republic, a study measuring electric shocks from a Taser stun gun found that it was 39 times more powerful than the manufacturer claimed, raising new questions about the weapon’s safety.
The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, concluded that the shocks are powerful enough to cause fatal heart rhythms. It is one of the few scientific studies of Taser’s electric jolt in which the company did not participate.
“The findings show the energy delivered by the weapon to be considerably understated by the manufacturer,” the Journal study said. “These findings place the weapon well into the lethal category.”
Former Cop to Plead Guilty to Illegal Use of Taser
A former Escambia County deputy accused of illegally shocking a Pensacola woman with a Taser stun gun is expected to plead guilty next week, federal court documents show.
British University Warns Against Tasers
A British university is warning of the dangers of electric stun guns that will be trialled in New Zealand later this year. Police officers will be armed with taser guns, which cause temporary paralysis and are designed to be used as a non-lethal way of dealing with violent offenders. Project coordinator of the Non Lethal Weapons Research Project at Bradford University, Neil Davison, says tasers are already used in the UK and the United States.
He says while the guns are meant to reduce the chances of serious injury to a suspect, they are open to mis-use and can lead to increased police violence.
Georgia Legislature Mandates Stun Gun Training
Police agencies in Georgia that use Taser stun guns would have to make sure their officers know how to use them properly under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the House on Wednesday.
The legislation, which cleared the lower chamber 162-1 and now goes to the Senate, would require police departments to draft written policies for using Tasers that meet standards set by the Georgia Peace Officer and Training Council.
Officers designated to use Tasers would have to complete a training course developed by the council and meet its certification requirements.