Another man dies after being shot by taser

Man dies after police jolt him with stun gun

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Man dies after police use Taser device on him while breaking up fight in Maryland
Another man died in Canada last week after being shot with Taser gun
Amnesty International blames 150 deaths since 2001 on police stun guns
Taser International says many deaths involving stun guns have other causes


(CNN) -- A 20-year-old man died Sunday after being shot with a Taser device during a scuffle with a sheriff's deputy in Maryland, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said.

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies responding to a report of a fight in progress arrived at the location in Frederick, Maryland, just before 5 a.m. ET and found four people fighting.

A deputy used a Taser device on one of the men, who fell unconscious, Bailey said.

The man was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was not immediately released, pending the notification of his family.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/18/taser.death/index.html

What is going on? There really seems to be a rash of taser deaths lately. Are they making them stronger?

...is a hell of a big step away from "non-lethal".

That's also sometimes not lethal.

Maybe it's about time to re-think the taser as subdue-only, less-than-deadly-force weapon?

It's obviously not safe to use on some people and this kid has received the death penalty for fighting.

and training. It's a hell of a lot cheaper (barring lawsuits) to use some weapon to gain control of a situation than to provide training in conflict management and psychological screening to LEO's. It might be comforting to the uninformed public to see more LEO's out on the street, but I know better. I'd rather have one good LEO than ten poorly paid, poorly trained, and poorly screened warm bodies trying to do a job they aren't prepared for.

I thought the taser was supposed to be the very last step before a lethal weapon was deployed. Too many of these people are pulling it out at the first sign of trouble.

In addition to the lack of training, do you think a contributing factor could be that many of the people who use tasers were first shocked with tasers during training? Perhaps they think that if it didn't do any permanent damage to them, it won't do any to anyone else, either.

Some are ok, others are assholes. From all interviews I've seen locally, this kid was an ok kid,not in trouble much, etc.

-Hoot

here.

-Hoot