Welfare check on veteran ends with him being tasered and arrested?

Former soldier tased, arrested after Phenix City standoff
WRBL News 3
By David Hurst
Posted: Jun 30, 2014

PHENIX CITY, Ala.
News 3 cameras were rolling when a Phenix City man was tased and arrested outside his home Monday afternoon after an hour-long standoff with Phenix City Police.

Jonathan Russ was arrested outside his Phenix City home on Maggy Court in the Silver Leaf subdivision.

Police initially went to the home for a welfare check on a child. Russ answered the door with a gun and wouldn't let the officer inside, Phenix City Police Lt. Jason Whitten tells News 3.

Authorities say as the officer was calling for backup, a child ran out of the house. The child was staying at the home with Russ, according to police. Authorities would not comment on the relation of the child to Russ.
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Veteran files suit against Louisville police after being tasered

Veteran files suit against Louisville police
By Jason Riley
The Courier-Journal
Posted : Saturday Jan 26, 2013

A Kentucky National Guard lieutenant colonel has filed a lawsuit against several Louisville Metro Police officers, alleging he was assaulted and wrongfully detained when they took him to the ground and handcuffed him after a confrontation in January 2012.

Lt. Col. Donald Blake Settle claims he was stopped as he tried to leave Mid City Mall on Jan. 29, with one officer eventually pulling a Taser on him before he was forced face-down onto the concrete and restrained, according to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Police have said they believed Settle was a homeless panhandler because his clothes were dusty, he had difficulty speaking and he couldn’t provide his address.

In an interview in September, Settle, a Purple Heart and multiple Bronze Star recipient, said he has a poor memory and difficulty speaking as the result of injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, incurred in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan and a vehicle rollover.

His case resulted in an internal police investigation, sharp questioning from Fort Knox officials and a new mandatory training program for police on how to deal with military veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Lt. colonel with brain injury was handcuffed by police
Also another case

Tasered Veteran Files Lawsuit Against New Lenox Police Brian Wilhelm, 28, was Tasered by police in December 2010 while trying to help people in a car accident.

35 Year old died in police custody after taser

Inmate death under investigation
Buffalo News
BY: LOU MICHEL , NANCY FISCHER

A 35-year-old Depew man who had been jailed on burglary charges by Depew police died late Friday afternoon after being transported from the Holding Center to Erie County Medical Center Wednesday for a mental health evaluation.

Richard A. Metcalf Jr. suffered a massive heart attack in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Buffalo attorney and family spokesman Thomas J. Casey said. Family also said Metcalf recently had begun showing signs of mental illness.

An investigation has already begun, said Thomas Diina, Erie County Sheriff Superintendant of Jail Management, and an autopsy was to be conducted.

Booking photos show Metcalf was bruised and cut before he was taken to the Holding Center, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“The booking photo shows that he had a rough ride before coming to us,” Diina said.

Casey said the family was distraught but had a lot of questions and wanted a full investigation.

Carwile said the officer used a Taser to subdue Metcalf and forcibly handcuffed him.
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Police use taser on man trying to fight fire

Strange news day for Florida, another off topic report

Florida cops tase man for trying to put out fire on his own house
Published: 14 November, 2012

After a Florida man picked up a garden hose to try to extinguish a fire that engulfed his neighbor’s house in flames, he was brutally tasered by police in front of his two children.

After laying in a puddle while the electricity surged through his body, 42-year-old Daniel Jensen is now emotionally distraught from the experience. He recounted the incident to a WTSP News reporter with tears in his eyes and a cracking voice.

“It was horrible. I was laying in a puddle of water being electrocuted,” he said. “And here’s the people trying to protect us. And I’m trying to protect my family and neighbors and they’re the ones that are bringing harm to me. I don’t understand it.”

Jensen and his wife, residents of Pinellas Park, woke up from a nap at 6 p.m. on Nov. 8 to the sound of an immense fire engulfing their neighbor’s house. Grabbing his fire extinguisher, the husband and father of two ran outside in his underwear and sprayed it at the flames that were engulfing the home. The flames had already reached the fence that separated the two houses and the wind was blowing them towards the corner of Jensen’s home.
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Pennsylvania man killed by police after mental health crisis

According to this report, police shot him after they used a taser

Man killed by police serving mental health warrant
Thursday, November 8, 2012

DALTON, Pa. (AP) — Police say they fatally shot a man while trying to serve him with a mental health warrant at his northeastern Pennsylvania home.
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PTSD decorated veteran, tasered by police, files lawsuit

Tasered Veteran Files Lawsuit Against New Lenox Police
Brian Wilhelm, 28, was Tasered by police in December 2010 while trying to help people in a car accident. The lawsuit claims officers acted with "reckless disregard" and maliciously prosecuted him.
By Michael Sewall
New Lenox police officers used "reckless disregard" when they Tasered resident Brian Wilhelm last year, a recently filed lawsuit against the officers claims.

Wilhelm, a 28-year-old Army veteran who was Tasered in December by New Lenox police, and his attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of Illinois.

The lawsuit states that Wilhelm is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, but his attorney, Lewis Gainor, would not put a dollar amount to what he wants.

Wilhelm came to help at the scene of a Dec. 11 car accident near his home at Woodlawn and Wisconsin roads. After trying to assist an injured passenger, Wilhelm got into a confrontation with New Lenox police officer Mark Klausner.

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Jury Acquits Amputee-PTSD Iraq War Veteran Tasered by Police

Jury Acquits Iraq War Veteran Tasered by Police

By Michael Sewall

Brian Wilhelm, of New Lenox, who lost his leg in combat and suffers from PTSD, was charged with battery and obstructing police in December after trying to help people in a car accident on his block.

Brian Wilhelm, the 28-year-old Army veteran who was Tasered in December by New Lenox police, was found not guilty on battery and obstructing police charges.

Wilhelm said he came to help at the scene of a Dec. 11 car accident near his home at Woodlawn and Wisconsin roads. After trying to assist an injured passenger, Wilhelm got into a confrontation with New Lenox police officer Mark Klausner. The two had their hands on each other when another officer used his Taser on Wilhelm.
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Jury Acquits Iraq War Veteran Tasered by Police

Man hit by taser and died was Vietnam veteran

Man hit by Taser was Vietnam veteran
Family mystified by death of 61-year-old
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Updated Nov 08, 2010 21:04
Harvestview S

His family was mystified Monday about what had happened to Neill. They did not know what precipitated the struggle, saying that Neill was a gentle man who wrestled with demons left from his service in Vietnam, where he served as an ambulance driver for the Marines.

A man who died Saturday after scuffling with police and being hit by a Taser was a Vietnam veteran who was haunted by his memories of the war, family members and a friend said Monday.

He also was a widower, a father of three grown children and a grandfather of nine.

Family and neighbors are waiting to hear more about the circumstances leading to the struggle that ended with the death of Robert Neill, 61, of Mount Joy Borough.

The incident began with a call to police by Neill, who said he was being harassed, police said.

But when police arrived at Harvestview South apartments early Saturday morning to talk to Neill, they said he became combative and aggressive. After he moved aggressively toward an officer and did not listen to their commands, police used a Taser, a gun that delivers an electric shock, on Neill.

Police used the gun again a short time later, as well as Mace, or pepper spray, when the struggle continued.

Mount Joy Borough police responded first and Susquehanna Regional Police and Pennsylvania State Police assisted them.


Read more: Man hit by Taser was Vietnam veteran

Naked jogger to cops: 'Why would you tase me?'

By Anika Myers Palm, Orlando Sentinel
1:41 a.m. EDT, October 14, 2010

Police in West Melbourne used a Taser to stop an 18-year-old man after they found him jogging nude.

Zak Anthony King, 18, of Palm Bay, faces charges of resisting arrest without violence and indecent exposure.

A police officer in the south Brevard County city responded to the area of Hollywood Boulevard and Stratford Pointe Drive about 7 a.m. Monday in response to a report of a man running nude.

The officer saw the King running north on Hollywood, clad only in swimming goggles. The officer drove beside King and told him several times to stop, but King did not comply, according to the arrest report.

The officer told King that he would be tased if he failed to stop.
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Eustis cop shoots man after he steals her taser and tasers her

Eustis cop shoots man after he steals her Taser

By Martin E. Comas

Sentinel Staff Writer

2:14 p.m. EDT, October 26, 2009


EUSTIS - A police officer shot and critically wounded a man outside a busy dollar store Wednesday after he grabbed the officer's Taser and fired the weapon at her, authorities said.

The man, who police had not yet identified late Monday, was reported in critical condition after undergoing surgery at Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was airlifted. Authorities said he was shot in the chest.

Eustis police Officer Theresa Graham was taken to a Lake County hospital, where she was being treated after being tased.

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Eustis cop shoots man after he steals her Taser

Don’t fire Tasers at the chest, manufacturer warns

Don’t fire Tasers at the chest, manufacturer warns


By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 -- 1:16 pm
WASHINGTON — The US manufacturer of the Taser stun gun has advised police not to aim the weapons at the chests of suspects after admitting heart risk concerns for the first time.

Taser International stressed that suffering an "adverse cardiac event" after being zapped was "extremely unlikely," but human rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed by the electroshock weapons.

In a bulletin dated October 12, the Arizona-based company issued new guidelines saying it had "lowered the recommended point of aim from center of mass to lower-center of mass for front shots."
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http://rawstory.com/2009/10/fire-tasers-chest/

Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire

Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire
Ohio Police Say Officers Struggled with Man Inhaling from Aerosol Can

(AP) Police in Ohio say officers using a new Taser stun gun briefly set a homeless man on fire while trying to subdue him.

A police report in Lancaster (LANG'-kuh-stur), about 30 miles southeast of Columbus, says one officer had seen the man inhaling a chemical from an aerosol can Monday night. That officer and another then struggled with the suspect, and the Taser was used. A flame appeared on the man's chest, and officers patted it down.

Police Chief David Bailey says 31-year-old Daniel Wood was not seriously hurt.
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Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire

Police taser man in diabetic shock

Police taser man in diabetic shock
John Byrne
Published: Tuesday December 9, 2008
Luckily for a driver who went into severe diabetic shock last month in Oklahoma, police arrived on the scene and called in an ambulance.

But not before they tasered and handcuffed him.

The 53-year-old diabetic man was tasered by police after they suspected him of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol and claimed he had resisted arrest -- even though he was actually in shock. The man's truck has spun out on an interstate after he lost control of his vehicle.
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Undercover officers use Taser on pallbearer at father's funeral

Undercover officers use Taser on pallbearer
Sheriff apologizes; other pallbearers thought it was 'a drug deal gone bad'
updated 22 minutes ago
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Five sheriff's deputies will be disciplined after they used a Taser while serving an arrest warrant on a man at his father's funeral.

Gladwyn Taft Russ III was serving as a pallbearer at the service last Saturday and was loading his father's casket into a hearse when the undercover deputies approached him.

Relatives said two deputies dressed in coats and ties grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before using a Taser on him. One deputy's gun fell out of its holster.

Russ, 42, had failed to surrender after being charged with threatening his ex-wife, who lives in another state. After his father died on Nov. 11, Russ agreed to surrender to authorities after the funeral.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27822770/

Man dies after being tasered in Chicago

Man dies after Chicago police use taser on him
October 18, 2008 at 6:07 PM
A man died today after Chicago police shot him with a taser gun when he approached officers with "a sharp-edged object" during a confrontation on the West Side, police said.

Police said the man also had ingested drugs just prior to the confrontation, which may have contributed to the death.

About 2 p.m., officers on bike patrol were in the area of North Leclaire Avenue and West Washington Boulevard when they saw a man, believed to be in his 30s, who appeared erratic and drinking from an open bottle, police said.

As police approached the man, he fled and a chase began.

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Son was hit by Taser in Farmington standoff, shot to death while on the ground

Dad: Son was hit by Taser in Farmington standoff, shot to death while on the ground
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 10/03/2008 11:04:50 AM MDT


Posted: 9:47 PM- FARMINGTON - The family of a man killed during a police standoff here last week said he had been stung by a Taser and was on the ground when a police officer shot and killed him.
Brian P. Wood was getting up when an officer fired a shot from a .308-caliber rifle, according to Wood's father and brother.
During a Thursday interview, Wood's father, Jerry Wood, wondered why so much force was used. He maintains his son was not a danger to anyone else.
"Why was such a lethal force used?" Jerry Wood asked. "And aren't the police suppose to protect us? And aren't they putting their officers in danger by forcing that kind of response from anyone."
Jerry Wood also claims police lied to the family and to Brian Wood throughout the 12-hour standoff last month.
Farmington police on Thursday referred questions to the Utah Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the standoff. That office declined comment.
A preliminary death certificate from a medical examiner says Wood died from a gunshot wound to the "head/neck."
The deadly episode began at about 9 a.m. on Sept. 22, when Brian Wood, a 37-year-old part-time Farmington firefighter, had a dispute with his wife. Jerry Wood and his surviving son, Andy Wood, on Thursday said they do not know what triggered the dispute and have not asked Brian Wood's widow.
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http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_10624080

Broward deputies Taser mentally ill inmate twice in court

Broward deputies Taser mentally ill inmate twice in court
A Broward circuit judge had ruled the man, 22, was mentally incapable to stand trial
Joel Marino South Florida Sun-Sentinel
10:46 AM EDT, August 30, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE - Upset by a judge's ruling, a mentally ill defendant asked deputies to let him catch his breath before they carted him from the Broward Circuit Court back to jail on Friday, his lawyer said.

The deputies told him he had to go, according to Assistant Public Defender Anne LeMaster, and when he resisted, they shocked him with a Taser -- twice.

The county's Public Defender's Office says the deputies used excessive force and filed a complaint with the Broward Sheriff's Office. David Jones, 22, the inmate, was handcuffed and shackled, LeMaster said.

"It just seems as though Tasering was not necessary in this case," said Doug Brawley, head of the Public Defender's mental health division.


Jones asked for a brief break after Judge Geoffrey Cohen ruled the inmate was mentally incapable to stand trial and ordered transferred to a state mental hospital, LeMaster said.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-bk-broward-taser-083008,0,7660955.story

17 year old, 22nd death by police taser in Canada

'Damn machine' killed my son, Winnipeg mother says
JOE FRIESEN

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

July 23, 2008 at 10:11 PM EDT

WINNIPEG — Holding a photo of her son in her hand, Sharon Shymko bows her head and weeps.

She is confused and angry, she says, and she wants to know why her son is dead.

Seventeen-year-old Michael Langan died Tuesday after being hit with a police electronic stun gun, the 22nd person in Canada to die after being tasered.

“This damn machine, it killed my son,” she said. “He would've been here today.

“I think they should ban tasers. They should ban all that crap.”
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linked from RawStory

Mentally Ill Woman in Wheel Chair Shot With Taser Gun Ten Times Within Minutes

A Clay County woman's family said it's seeking justice after their loved one died shortly after being shocked 10 times with Taser guns during a confrontation with police.

The family of 56-year-old Emily Delafield said it would take the Green Cove Springs Police Department to court, according to a WJXT-TV report.

In April 2006, officers with the police department said they were called to a disturbance at a home in the 400 block of Harrison Street just before 5 p.m.

In a 911 call made to the Green Cove Springs, Delafield can be heard telling a dispatcher that she believed she was in danger:

Dispatcher: And what's the problem?

Delafield: My sister is waiting on my property.

Dispatcher: Your what?

Delafield: My sister (inaudible) is on my property trying to harm me.

Officers said they arrived to find Delafield in a wheelchair, armed with two knives and a hammer. Police said the woman was swinging the weapons at family members and police.

Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.

Family attorney Rick Alexander said Delafield's death could have been prevented and that there are four things that jump out at him about the case.

"One, she's in a wheelchair. Two, she's schizophrenic. Three, they're using a Taser on a person that's in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes," Alexander said.
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