I was reading a story in the British papers about a 280 lb. ex-bodyguard killed by police while running around his neighbors property…naked. When I read that the cause of death was a police taser I was taken aback. I’ve wondered about the chances of accidentally killing an elderly person with a taser, but a large (built like the Hulk actually) athletic man surprised me.
Norman Oosterbroek on right.
Truth is, it shouldn’t have been a surprise after all…
Tased to Death?
Aug 13, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Caught by Miami Beach police for spraying paint, an 18-year-old took a Taser shot to the chest and died—one of 500 such deaths since 2001. Winston Ross on the ‘nonlethal’ weapon of ‘first resort.’
Amnesty International says that since 2001 more than 500 people have been killed in the U.S. after being shocked by a Taser. Of those, more than 60 were listed by medical examiners as being directly attributable to the device; others had a cause of death unknown.
While I (usually) don’t accept everything that Amnesty International says as true, in this case I found a quote from the biggest manufacturer of Tasers that while they recommend not targeting the chest with their device, that is not often the policy of the numerous police departments that buy the Tasers. Perhaps it should be.
On the North River 