"An Unfortunate Situation"

by digby

Teenager wasted:

A Detroit teenager who police say fled a traffic stop Friday died after being subdued with a Taser. He is the second Michigan teen to die following a Taser stun in less than a month.

Warren Police say they don't know why the 15-year-old bailed out of a Dodge Stratus he was riding in during the stop on Eight Mile near Schoenherr, leading officers on a half-block chase that ended in an abandoned house on Pelkey in Detroit.

The car was stopped for having an expired license plate.

In the scuffle, officers shocked the teen one time with a Taser, police said. Shortly after, he became unresponsive and died.

Warren Police defended their call to shock the teen, who they later learned suffered from asthma and took antidepressant drugs. "It's an unfortunate situation," Warren Deputy Police Commissioner Jere Green said. "Our officers are shaken by it; they are upset. They are humans just like anybody else."

[...]

The Detroiter, whose name wasn't released Friday, is the second Michigan teen in less than a month to die after being zapped by a Taser. Bay City Police tasered 15-year-old Brett Elder last month after he tried to fight with them. He died shortly thereafter.

[...]

Green said his officers followed department policy.

"Research indicates it (a Taser) wouldn't cause death in itself. It's a nonlethal use of force," Green said. "Everything we did was within policies and guidelines. All of our actions were appropriate."

Dr. Stephen Gasper, a senior resident in emergency medicine at Beaumont Hospital of Royal Oak, said it's very rare that Tasers cause a death.

"Usually there's something else going on," he said.


Exactly. The kid would have died at that moment from his asthma and depression anyway. The 50,000 volts had nothing to do with it.

Just ask Taser International; they're the ones who do the research. I'm sure they would say these 15 year old kids suffered from "excited delirium "