By Howie Padilla, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
A Minneapolis, Minn. man died Thursday morning, seven days after suffering a heart attack shortly after police subdued him with a Taser stun gun.
Raymond L. Siegler, 40, had been in critical condition since the Feb. 6 incident.
Police were called to the Andrew Residence on the 1200 block of S. 9th Street at about 5:45 p.m. after Siegler reportedly threatened fellow residents at the group home for adults with mental illness.
Members of the Police Department’s crisis intervention team, who are trained to deal with people suffering from mental illness, were the first to arrive.
They called for backup, but when they were unable to subdue Siegler, they used the Taser. Siegler suffered cardiac arrest shortly after he was shocked.
He had existing medical conditions before the weapon was used on him, and authorities say they don’t think the Taser caused the cardiac arrest.
The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office has not yet determined the cause of Siegler’s death.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. The officers involved, David Mathes and Timothy Savior, were placed on a three-day administrative leave, which is standard policy. They were expected to return to work this week, police spokesman Ron Reier said Thursday.
After hearing of the news, Mark Anderson, executive director of the Friends of Barbara Schneider, said that the sheriff’s investigation may not be enough to determine how to prevent similar incidents in the future.
“We all want to know what went wrong,” he said. “But we need to look at the entire system of working with the mentally ill.”
Anderson used the analogy of a plane crash, where an agency dissects the entire incident, from beginning to end, to determine the cause.
“They’re not placing blame on anyone,” he said. “They’re just trying to figure out what happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
It’s not just the investigation of what happened after police arrived that needs to be looked at, but also the things that led up to Siegler’s threats, Anderson said.