The Associated Press
ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) - Police were reviewing whether it was proper for an officer to use a stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she’d gone to visit an ailing friend.
Margaret Kimbrell acknowledged she was distraught after unsuccessfully trying to visit a friend at the home Friday but the officer “didn’t have to do that. I didn’t deserve this.”
A police report said the woman tried to hit the officer.
Kimbrell said she became agitated when the staff would not tell her where her friend was, fearing he had died. The man was taking a walk at the time.
Police charged Kimbrell with trespassing and resisting arrest. Officer Hattie Macon, who joined the department about 18 months ago, remains on duty during the investigation.
“On face value, it looks like it was proper,” police Chief John Gregory said. “We have a person who was asked to leave, who refused and who attempted to assault the officer.”
The nursing home staff called police after Kimbrell refused to leave. Police said Macon fired the taser, striking Kimbrell in the back and forcing her to the ground.
“I thought I was dying,” Kimbrell said. “I didn’t want to hurt her and I can’t believe she would hurt me.”
A taser shoots small probes into a person’s body, sending 50,000 volts of electricity into the person for five seconds.
Kimbrell said she bruised her leg when she fell, but the police report said neither the officer nor Kimbrell were injured.