Taser Death: 50,000 Volts to the Chest Akin to a Bullet to the Heart

Wilmington, NCThe numbers of individuals who have been Tasered to death are growing, given the rise in the stun-gun's use by law enforcement. Taser death is all over the news, as tragic stories—most quite shocking and some downright appalling—report heartbreaking deaths by Tasers, and injuries suffered even by children.

And now, a story originating from North Carolina points to an apparent increasing dependence police officers harbor for the device, which appear to conflict with the reasons for which the Taser was developed in the first place.

In sum, it appears as if police officers are too quick to use it, and conduct arrests and investigations with less caution and decorum, knowing that they have a weapon at their disposal that is regarded as safer, and posing less risk than a service revolver.

But as recent history has shown, not by much.

Here's the background of an event that happened November 15th in Wilmington. A North Carolina man had been charged with threatening an ex-wife who lived in another state. In the midst of all this, the father of Gladwyn Taft Russ III died. Russ was due to serve as a pallbearer at his father's funeral, and had agreed to surrender peacefully to police following the service. Prior to the death of his father, Russ had failed to surrender to authorities.

According to the agreed-to protocol, authorities were to attend at the funeral from a respectful distance, and arrest the suspect at the conclusion of the funeral.

But it didn't happen that way. Rather than wait until the service had properly concluded at the cemetery, deputies approached Russ as he was helping to load his father's remains into the back of the hearse last Saturday. A spokesperson claimed that Russ 'went wild' and spat on the officers as they approached him.

Their response was to grab Russ, knee him in the back and Taser him.

A North Carolina sheriff's official has apologized for the event, and the undercover deputies have been reprimanded, according to a report carried in the Associated Press.

There is little doubt that the deputies plunged the funeral into chaos by not waiting until after the cemetery service to make the agreed arrest quietly. Instead, Russ' sister reported to the Star-News of Wilmington that when she got out of the car a deputy "was waving a gun at me and my mom and yelling to get back or he was going to shoot." A collection of mourners went home, rather than proceed to the cemetery.

"Everybody was so scared," Russ' brother-in-law and pallbearer Ronnie Simmons told the press. "We thought it was a drug deal gone bad. We almost dropped the casket."

Russ was eventually arrested (after being Tasered) and charged with assault on a government official, resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and felony malicious conduct by a prisoner.

However, it could be argued that those charges may not have been necessary had the officers observed a little more decorum at a sensitive time for any family, regardless of the need to make an arrest. The suspect was merely charged, but had not been tried and therefore had yet to be proven guilty in the courts of law. The very fact that undercover officers made an approach in the midst of his father's funeral may have invited, and triggered the suspect's malicious behavior.

And the Taser was front and center, in the ensuing confusion. A spokesperson for the New Hanover County Sheriff's office confirmed that officers pointed Tasers at people, because the crowd was moving towards them. And it has yet to be determined if the Taser was actually needed on Russ when he was already immobilized with a knee in the back, only to be subjected to a high-voltage shock from the end of a Taser as well.

The Taser weapon is not classed as a firearm. Thus, it gets a pass on the basket of federal and state laws, which govern firearms. And while the Taser is promoted by the manufacturer as a safe, and effective alternative to a service revolver, dozens of Taser deaths (among them, 54 wrongful death lawsuits) and hundreds if not thousands of injuries suggest that the Taser is, allegedly, not as safe as they are made out to be. Amnesty International reports 130 Americans have suffered Taser death.

Questions remain, as well, on law enforcement's seemingly increased dependence to use the devices as a more convenient way to subdue potentially uncooperative suspects. But at what price? The Taser delivers a paralyzing shock of 50,000 volts. One has to wonder how many officers have experienced the shock of a Taser, and if such a demonstration might be considered mandatory.

If it were, perhaps those law enforcement officials who used a Taser, delivering 50,000 volts to 211 children—CHILDREN—might have thought better of it. Following a jolt of 50,000 volts administered by a Taser, one 14-year old boy suffered a heart attack.

The high incidence of Taser death, and injury should give pause to anyone who thinks a Taser is less of a risk than a service revolver. The number of deaths by Tasers, and related injuries suggest that the marketing vision, and the real-world use of the device should be reviewed. For those who have fallen victim to Taser death, 50,000 volts to the chest is akin to taking a bullet in the heart.