By Frank Geary, The Las Vegas Review-Journal
Clark County, Nev. Sheriff Bill Young said Monday Las Vegas police will re-evaluate training policies in light of a jury’s finding Friday that a 50,000-volt stun gun activated seven times contributed to a man’s death in February.
The jury at a coroner’s inquest ruled that officer Reggie Rader’s repeated use of a Taser in subduing William Lomax, 26, a handcuffed man under the influence of PCP, was excessive and was a factor in the cardiac arrest that killed him.
“The whole idea behind the Tasers was to save lives and decrease injuries,” Young said. “In the long run, we believe it’s going to save lives.”
Officers are trained to zap combative subjects like Lomax as often as required to subdue them, but Young said it’s prudent to review the training to see whether that’s appropriate when dealing with someone under the influence of drugs and already restrained in handcuffs.
“I am going to relook at that training a little bit. ... Of the seven activations of this Taser, five of the activations were when the individual was handcuffed,” Young said. “My gut feeling, my personal preference, is that our officers never use any force when someone is in handcuffs.”
Las Vegas police in the past nine months have armed officers with more than 400 Tasers because they’re considered an alternative to lethal force.
Tasers are equipped with fishhook-sized darts attached to 25-foot cables, which can deliver an electronic jolt from a distance. Or, as in the case with Lomax, they can be used by touching a target directly with the device.
Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said Tasers are dangerous weapons and officers must be given clear direction on when their use is appropriate.
“This is not rocket science. When someone is down and cuffed and does not pose a serious threat to the security of officers or anyone else, it makes no sense to Taser them seven or eight times,” Peck said.
Young pointed out that experts have always said Tasers are not lethal.
Dr. Ronald Knoblock, the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Lomax, said the cause of death was “cardiac arrest during restraint procedures.” He said the Taser was a contributing factor in the restraint used by Rader and three security guards.
Knoblock couldn’t say whether Lomax would have died had the Taser not been used or whether the Taser caused his death.
The sheriff said Rader did nothing wrong in using the Taser on Lomax, who was kicking the security guards and violently rolling back and forth even after he was handcuffed.
Aside from the use of a Taser, the circumstances of Lomax’s death were similar to many other cases in which an out-of-shape subject on drugs dies from a heart attack after wrestling with security guards or police officers, Young said.
The jury ruled Rader’s actions were excusable even though most inquests into the deaths of people at the hands of police are ruled justifiable. A homicide is excusable when committed by a person doing a lawful act, who doesn’t have any intention of killing someone.