Man's family sues over Taser death (G. Saulsbury case)

[struggle4progress]

The family of a 30-year-old Pacifica man who died in January in .. custody filed a .. lawsuit Monday seeking $30 million ...

Greg Saulsbury was pronounced dead .. less than an hour after his aunt called 911 seeking emergency medical help because he was acting strangely and having trouble breathing ...

The suit describes a brief melee in which Saulsbury was handcuffed, slammed to the ground, doused with pepper spray and shot multiple times with a Taser, which delivers an electrical charge. The suit states that Saulsbury made no aggressive moves toward the officers, contradicting police claims made in January that he was ``combative and uncooperative.''

At some point after he was taken to the floor, Saulsbury stopped breathing ...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/11381428.htm

[SouthernDem2004]

1. Link:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=2612214

[liberalnurse]

2. He should of complied

to the officers commands. He was combative, resisting the officers, high on cocaine and was in need of being contained. He chose the battle, not the officers. An out of control cocaine raging bull is an unpredicable threat. The deceased crossed the line.

[sendero]

3. That...

.... doesn't give them the right to kill him, sorry. If the witnesses are crediblte, the city will lose this suit and I'll be happy.

It is possible to restrain someone without killing them, officers did it for years before tasers were invented deaths were rare.

[liberalnurse]

4. The officers did not kill him.

Your language is grossly misleading and "yellow". He died from an apparent combination of substance abuse, cocaine intox, rage and secondary side effects from the above when recieving a Taser jolt.

The family called the police to begin with. They knew he was a coker/crackhead. They did not say the family called 911 for medical. They were scared shitless I bet and they called the police as a direct result of their fear from this guy. Now they seek money...for more crack I assume.

The officers must repond to a call and arrest the out of control suspect. They could not leave him there.... He resisted.....he was Tased. If the cops left the scene without his removal and someone was harmed or killed after they left....then the suit would have greater merit.

[NickB79]

5. The family say he made no aggressive moves

So it boils down to who the courts will believe, the witnesses or the police.

[liberalnurse]

6. Thats what the family said and they

have great gain from reporting such posturing in light of a suit pending. I don't believe it. They are the ones who called for help from the crack head.

[NickB79]

7. Actually, it says the family called for help because he couldn't breath

I haven't been able to find any reports stating the family called because the "crackhead" was attacking them. What I have read is that the family called 911 because the young man was having trouble breathing, and made no mention of cocaine use to the police before they tackled him, or of him acting violently before police arrived.

[liberalnurse]

8. Well lets look at the scene......

snips>

"The family was sitting on him, the police at some point were trying to restrain him."

Police say Saulsbury became combative, forcing them to use the Taser.

toxic levels of cocaine in his system.

Greg Saulsbury's cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, brought on by toxic levels of cocaine in his system, struggles with police and his family.


end>


I really eye the fact that the family was even sitting on him. That would include the officers also trying to contain this man without success. He was dangerous! A powerful raging bull!


This was not some distraught patient who wanted medical attention. He was a "high-high" crack head on a rage. The Taser is a valuable tool. The family may not of shared he was a crack head who smoked too much that night. That would of been helpful information that the family elected not to disclose is how I read this. It took the coroner to identify that tid-bit. The use of the Taser may of, I say may of, been ruled out with the information.