‘Agitated’ man was hit by 4 jolts of electricity as officers attempted to control him
By Mike Glenn
The Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON, Tex. — The death of a man shocked four times with a police Taser cannot necessarily be blamed on the electrical jolts, a Houston police official said Tuesday.
“Unless the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office tells us differently, we’re not considering it a (Taser-) related death,” Executive Assistant Chief Charles McClelland said about the Monday night incident.
Authorities late Tuesday were still trying to identify the man, who was pronounced dead shortly after 10:30 p.m. Monday at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.
He died about an hour after being shocked by police at the Charleston Court Apartments, 7651 Gulfton.
Houston Fire Department paramedics had been called to the complex about a person with “possible mental health problems,” authorities said. The paramedics found the man lying on the ground, erratically waving his arms, and later requested police assistance.
“They tried to check him out, (but) he began to kick and punch at them,” McClelland said. “That’s when they stepped back and called out for assistance.”
The officers tried to calm the man, who continued kicking and flailing in what police called “an agitated state.”
“They attempted to gain control over him, but he was too strong for them to handcuff,” McClelland said.
Officer S.R. Matus then used his Taser, which sent a 1,200-volt burst of electricity through the man’s system for about five seconds. The first three jolts had little effect.
It took four bursts of the Taser -- a total of 20 seconds’ worth of electricity -- followed by a physical struggle before the man was subdued, McClelland said.
After he was handcuffed and strapped to a gurney, paramedics noticed that the man wasn’t breathing. They administered medical assistance before rushing him to the hospital.
It wasn’t known whether the man had any pre-existing medical condition that might have played a part in his death, McClelland said.
One Charleston Court resident who witnessed the incident, Abelardo Salas, said he didn’t think the man was actually fighting with the paramedics or, later, the police. He said the man appeared to be highly intoxicated when the ambulance arrived.
“He wasn’t fighting with the cops,” Salas said, adding that the officer “put the Taser on him, and he just kept pressing” the trigger.
“If the police would have apprehended him, they could have,” Salas added. “There was no point in Tasering him.”
More than 1,100 shocks
HPD officers have used Tasers more than 1,100 times since December 2004, when the department added the device to its inventory of weapons.
“Not one time has a suspect been seriously injured or killed by a Taser deployed by an HPD officer,” police spokesman John Cannon said.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office planned to conduct an autopsy.
The incident could spark another round of debate over the controversial devices.
The Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is calling for a moratorium on Taser use by police departments in the state, pending the results of independent scientific studies.
“What needs to be done are studies on at-risk populations and for long-term health effects,” said the ACLU’s Debbie Russell.
McClelland, who reviews each use of a Taser by a Houston officer, said the department would drop stun guns if police had “credible information” from the medical community that they are not safe to use.
“We certainly wouldn’t allow people in our training division to be subject to this device,” McClelland said.
HPD considers the Taser an intermediate-level weapon, along with pepper spray and batons.
The decision to use the Taser, or any other weapon, is ultimately the officer’s.
Russell said Tasers should be viewed on the same level as firearms because they are potentially lethal.
Drinking in courtyard
Police said the man who died Monday was carrying no identification and was not known to residents at the apartment complex.
McClelland said the man walked up and began drinking in the courtyard.
He forced his way into an apartment later that night, struggling with a man who lived there before biting him on an arm, police said.
“It was a pretty significant wound,” McClelland said.
HPD’s Crisis Intervention Team, which is trained to deal with people exhibiting signs of mental health problems, was not sent to the complex because the officers were told only that they were responding to a request from paramedics to assist with an unruly patient, police said.
A fire department spokesman said paramedics often call for help in that type of situation, but he didn’t have details about Monday night’s incident.
Armando Villafranca contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Houston Chronicle