Akron man dies; had been stunned with a Taser gun

[slaveplanet]

Sunday, May 29, 2005
Donna Iacoboni
Plain Dealer Reporter

An 18-year-old Akron man died soon after a Springfield Township policewoman stunned him with a Taser gun Saturday.

Richard T. Holcomb was pronounced dead at 2:05 a.m. at Akron City Hospital. The Summit County medical examiner was performing an autopsy Saturday and declined to release preliminary findings. Holcomb's body was being tested for drugs.

Township police Capt. Garry Moneypenny and resident Deborah Hartman provided the following description of what happened.

Hartman, 48, called police at 12:45 a.m., saying three people were loitering behind her house near her horse barn. She heard them talking through a monitor in her barn that relays sound to a speaker in her house.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1117359309209310.xml&coll=2

[Roland99]

1. Is that like the 3rd or 4th in a matter of a couple of weeks now?

[Tippy]

14. One in TN posted yesterday now this one today

Tasers, which jolt suspects with 50,000 volts of electricity, are responsible for the deaths of 85 people across the country, according to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an Atlanta-based civil rights group.

85 was the number in February, 2005

[Warpy]

2. Tasers need to be regarded just like guns

and the discharge of any weapon needs an internal investigation.

Cops have been lied to about the non lethal nature of tasers. They can be lethal, especially when the shock recipient has drugs on board or when the cops decide to have a little "fun" with multiple shocks.

The internal investigation would determine whether the first or second were the actual case. Cops who are using them for torture need to be fired.

[bennywhale]

3. Every time i come on DU there seems to be a tasar death

what are the overall figures. These are worse than guns as the police are using them indiscriminately to get their way in a given situation. At least with a gun you know you are gonna kill someone. This is viewed as a toy,.

[Roland99]

4. Amnesty report slams Taser, cites 103 related deaths

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-04-01-taser-report_x.htm

PHOENIX (AP) — There were 103 Taser stun gun-related deaths in the United States and Canada between June 2001 and March 2005, according to an Amnesty International report released Friday.

In the first three months of this year, there were 13 Taser-related deaths — compared with six during the same period last year, the report said.

[bennywhale]

11. Are there any figures "deaths per tasar usage" to determine how lethal

these are

[Roland99]

12. Hmm...probably in some departmental reports

[Kagemusha]

5. I agree with all that except the "worse than guns" part.

I'm not taking that leap until I see hard statistics side by side. Just because this is a liberal board does not mean it is immune from the "it bleeds, it leads" media distortion effect. Yes, you see a taser death every time you come on because people with an agenda - an agenda I do not find wholly unreasonable by any means - seek to ensure that these deaths are publicized, particularly because Taser the company does not acknowledge that these are Taser deaths, but rather simply, deaths following the use of a Taser and not directly related.

[Warpy]

7. That's why I suggested investigations when they're discharged

I think most of us would prefer an out of control family member be subdued with a taser rather than a bullet to the chest. That isn't the issue. The issue is the fact that they've been sold as 100% safe and nonlethal, something that is simply not true.

Discharge of any weapon, even "nonlethal" weapons, needs to be investigated by internal affairs. There are cops out there who use multiple discharges just to see a victim jump. We need to identify those guys and get them the hell off the force.

[saigon68]

8. I wonder if Dude was Black?

The cops seem to get a charge out of zapping minorities.

[Jacobin]

9. They ARE worse

BEcause with a gun you know you are about to inflict potentially deadly force.

With a taser, you think you can zap people with impunity like some fucking Star Wars gun on 'stun', and you end up killing a lot of people, because they are/can be deadly force.

That makes them worse, imho

[bennywhale]

10. Guns are obviously worse, i meant in the manner

they are used as a method of compliance. Refusal to sign speeding ticket, refusal to calm down, mentally ill behaving irratically. All these appear now to be increasingly answered with 50 00 volts.

[Gregorian]

6. Cops running around with defibrillators. What's with this!?

These should have been removed from action the first time I replied to one of these threads, a long time ago.

These people are dying from cardiac related complications. I don't need a billion dollar study to know that. So why are they still being used? Is America totally asleep, or are they being ignored? Man, with the response I'm seeing from this country, I really hope I don't need help some day. It's like a five year lag time. This is so stupid, it's nothing short of madness.

I am guessing that this is nothing short of what is happening at Abu Ghraib. MK Ultra comes home.

[seriousstan]

13. Then the 6-foot-2 man got up and ran toward the 5-foot-6, 125-pound police

She should have simply shot him in the head and been done with it.

[struggle4progress]

15. Shoot first, ask questions later, eh?

[seriousstan]

16. Why would you ask a dead man questions?

[struggle4progress]

17. Judge Roy Bean school of criminal justice: fine the dead guy for ..

.. contempt when he doesn't answer ...

[struggle4progress]

18. Ohio Teen Stunned by Taser After Graduation Party Dies

JEWELL CARDWELL
Akron Beacon Journal, Distributed by the Associated Press

All that the parents of 18-year-old Richard T. Holcomb of Akron know is that he left Friday evening with friends en route to a high school graduation party.

They awoke the next morning to news of his death.

Holcomb died after being stunned with a Taser gun by a Springfield Township police officer about 1 a.m. Saturday. <snip>

Holcomb's death was the second Summit County fatality this year involving a police Taser. <snip>

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=23934