The Associated Press
DENVER (AP) -- A monthslong safety and policy review of Taser use by police will be completed amid an investigation into the death of a man shot by one of the stun guns.
Kevin Karlo, 44, died Thursday after police say he resisted arrest and officers hit him four times with the supposedly non-lethal device meant to incapacitate suspects.
His death was the first in Denver since three years ago when the city introduced the less-lethal alternative to shooting combative suspects.
Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said the department had been studying the device’s safety for months and last month, he forwarded data from the manufacturer to Denver Health Medical Center cardiologists.
“We have a meeting next week ... and they will have an opinion for me,” Whitman said.
Karlo’s girlfriend, Kelly Long, said Karlo overdosed on cocaine. What role the drugs and electric shocks played in the death may not be clear until an autopsy and toxicology tests are completed.
Stun gun manufacturer, Taser International, said only four deaths in the United States and Canada have been directly linked to the Taser’s use. Company spokesman Steve Tuttle said even those deaths are disputed by medical experts.
“We’ve had well over 70,000 successful volunteer exposures,” Tuttle said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s a magic bullet.”
Nationwide, the American Civil Liberties Union has tracked 57 in-custody deaths of suspects where a Taser was used, said Mark Silverstein, an attorney with the ACLU’s Denver branch.
“I know that there are people who have raised serious questions about the use of electroshock weapons, but we have not called for the abolition of the Tasers,” he said. “I agree with the proposition that in some cases the use of the Taser might save lives.”
Silverstein wrote a letter to Whitman in February asking the department change its policy on Taser use. Instead of officers using stun guns on suspects offering “defensive resistance,” Silverstein asked that officers use the devices when an individual is using “aggressive resistance.”