Stun gun sends teen's heart into ventricular vibrillation

September 2, 2005
By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

CHICAGO, Sept. 2-A Chicago teenager's heart went into ventricular fibrillation after the youth was subdued by police with a Taser electric stun gun, reported physicians.

"An adolescent was subdued with a Taser stun gun and subsequently collapsed," wrote Paul J. Kim, M.D., and Wayne H. Franklin, M.D., of Children's Memorial Hospital here in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Paramedics found the adolescent to be in ventricular fibrillation and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation within two minutes after the collapse," the physicians wrote. "After four shocks and the administration of epinephrine, atropine, and lidocaine, a perfusing rhythm was restored. The adolescent made a nearly complete recovery and was discharged from the hospital several days later."

The letter was accompanied by electrocardiogram tracings showing the boy's heart rhythm before and after defibrillation.

Tasers fire wired-barbs delivering an estimated 50,000 volts of pulsed electrical energy to the target.

At a meeting of the Academy of Forensic Sciences in February, electrical engineer James Ruggieri made a presentation in which he said that the electrical output of Taser's M26 model succeeds the fibrillation threshold for half the U.S. population.

In response, Taser International issued a press statement calling the report erroneous, asserting that the Taser's pulsed current is well below the safety guidelines published by the International Electrotechnical Commission.

In April, the human rights group Amnesty International USA reported that Tasers had caused more than 100 deaths in the United States and Canada.

The devices are designed to incapacitate subjects by causing rapid muscle contractions and intense but transient pain.

"TASER strongly supports independent review of its devices," says a statement on the company's web site. "A number of independent reviews have affirmed the life-saving value of TASER as a safer, effective non-lethal use of force."

In their letter to NEJM, Drs. Kim and Franklin suggest that in light of their findings, police who are equipped with stun guns should also be equipped with portable automated external defibrillators.

Primary source: New England Journal of Medicine
Source reference:
NEJM Volume 353:958-959

Special Report: stun gun fallacy - how the lack of taser regulation endangers lives

September 2005
ACLU of Northern California

Police officers from five states sue Taser International for serious injuries suffered during stun gun training classes

August 25, 2005
infowars.com

While the Canadian Police Research Institute has now stated that Tasers and other “conducted energy devices” are acceptable because the advantages they provide outweigh the risks they pose.

In reaching this conclusion in its report to Canadian police chiefs, the Institute was apparently not overly troubled by the enormous number of deaths that have occurred in cases where a Taser has been used. The specific finding by the Coroner of Cook County, Illinois, that a Taser was, in fact, the cause of death of a man arrested in Chicago also appears to have been ignored in the report as the type of definitive evidence it was seeking to support the claim that the devices can cause death.

This report comes at the same time that police officers in five states have filed lawsuits against Taser International claiming they suffered serious injuries after being shocked with the device during training classes.

One officer, a Missouri police chief, alleges that he suffered heart damage and two strokes after he volunteered to be shocked with a Taser in April 2004, while hooked up to a cardiac monitor that was supposed to show the Taser was safe. The officer also claims he suffered hearing and vision loss as well as neurological damage.

Other injuries claimed by the officers involved include spinal fractures, burns, a dislocated shoulder, and soft-tissue damage. A previous lawsuit file in February 2004 alleged a sheriff's deputy suffered a fractured back in 2002.

The lawsuits challenge Taser International's central marketing claim that its device is safe and charge the manufacturer of misleading its customers concerning the potential risks posed by the stun guns. Taser is also accused of minimizing and misrepresenting the 2002 fractured back case even after its own doctor found a one-second shock from a Taser caused the injury.

The lawsuits also allege Taser International withheld reports of injuries to at least 12 other police officers and that the company has ignored credible research suggesting the device can be extremely dangerous, if not fatal.

As with all previous allegations against it, Taser International has stated that it intends to vigorously defend the claims. The company has denied any of the 144 deaths which have occurred following the use of a Taser was caused by its product.

Clearly, both sides cannot be right in this matter. As we reported on August 7, Taser International has now issued a training bulletin warning that repeated blasts of the Taser can "impair breathing and respiration."

According to a posting on Taser's website, for subjects in a state known as excited delirium, repeated or prolonged stuns with the Taser can contribute to "significant and potentially fatal health risks."

The three-page bulletin appears to counter instructions in a training manual Taser International issued only last year. It also departs from Taser's previous dismissals of safety concerns raised by groups such as Amnesty International, which has documented 129 U.S. and Canadian deaths of people stunned by Tasers.

The Houston Police Department (HPD), Taser's biggest U.S. customer, has formed a review committee of police officials and community leaders, including representatives from the NAACP and League of United Latin American Citizens, to study the use of Tasers in the city of Houston.

The committee started by reviewing the HPD use-of-force policy, training sessions that officers receive, and the first 200 incidents in which Tasers were used in Houston.

Houston will also be involved in a study of Taser use conducted by a national police-research organization according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

Obviously, a non-lethal weapon becomes a problem when it starts killing people. Many experts and critics of the Taser stun gun believe that time has long since passed.

For example, using a number of sources, The Arizona Republic has now compiled a list of 144 cases in the United States and Canada since 1999 where a death followed the use of a Taser stun gun. http://www.azcentral.com/specials/taser/#

The sources used included autopsy reports, computer searches, police reports, media accounts, and Taser International's own records. To date, the research indicates that medical examiners have cited the Taser to some extent in 18 deaths. In four cases it was a cause of death, in 10 it was a contributing factor, and in four it could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

This, however, seems to be just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to Taser International's mounting problems with respect to its approximately 100,000 stun guns now being used by some 7,000 U.S. law-enforcement agencies.

Despite the company's spirited defense of its product, Taser International's stock has continued to fall from $33.45 in December 2004 to $9.72 on July 30, a decline of over 70%.

From the very beginning, many experts questioned the safety of the 50,000 volt “non-lethal” weapon. A lack of adequate testing and independent medical evidence supporting the company's bold marketing claims have been cited by such diverse critics as Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a consulting electrical engineer as reasons for removing the stun guns from the market until more extensive testing is done especially with respect to how the device affects pregnant women, people on drugs, or those with heart conditions.

Even the International Association of Chiefs of Police have suggested that further testing is needed. The organization advocates using the device only to subdue violent suspects; not to use it on handcuffed persons unless they are “overly assaultive;” to use it the least number of times; and to seek medical attention for anyone who has been shocked.

In addition, all types of Taser-related lawsuits abound. Personal injury and death claims have been commenced in a number of states. In March of this year, Mesa, Arizona, settled a claim by a 43-year-old man who fell out of a tree after being shocked twice with a Taser by a city police officer. The City paid $2.2 million to the man who became a quadriplegic and another $200,000 to the hospital where he was treated.

A class-action lawsuit was commenced only last week in U.S. District Court in Chicago by the city of Dolton, Illinois, on behalf of police departments across the country for being misled about the safety of the Taser and for leaving the police with weapons that are too dangerous to use on the street.

The law firm representing the city of Dolton claims to have already been retained by other police departments in four states. Paul Geller, an attorney from that firm, states that the law suit would be dropped if Taser would agree to take back the stun guns.

The potential for huge personal injury and death claims have left many municipalities rethinking their purchase of Tasers. Some police forces like those in Birmingham and Lucas County ( Ohio) have either stopped issuing the weapons or have pulled them of the street altogether. Other cities like Chicago have backed off making additional purchases.

The mayor of Birmingham ordered police to stop using Tasers after the death of an inmate who had been shocked with a Taser several hours before he died.

The mayor of Dolton, which suspended their use, calls his city's purchase of Tasers “a mistake” because “they need far more testing.” He went on to say that losing the money his city paid for the Tasers was far less than the financial risk posed by even one wrongful-death lawsuit.

On January 6, 2005 Taser officials disclosed that federal authorities had launched an inquiry into claims made by the company with respect to its safety studies. The Securities and Exchange Commission was also probing an end-of-year sale which appeared to inflate sales in order to meet annual projections.

In May, The Arizona Republic also reported that “Taser International was deeply involved in a Department of Defense study that company officials touted to police departments and investors as ‘independent' proof of the stun gun's safety...This information is surfacing at a time when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona attorney general are pursuing inquiries into safety claims that the Scottsdale firm has made.”

On July 17, the Associated Press reported a Texas man died after being shocked between three and six times with a Taser by an off-duty police officer who was acting as a security guard. The man's wife said she was suing Taser International because her husband “didn't deserve the death penalty.” It appears the men had done little more than trespass on private property and confront the officer who had chased him.

The report went on to state: “In the past nine months, at least six people in Texas – including three in Fort Worth – have died after authorities shocked them with a Taser gun.”

On July 27, a prisoner being held in a Queens, New York, police station died after being shocked with a Taser.

Finally, on July 30, several news sources reported that (for the first time) the Cook County ( Chicago, Illinois) Medical Examiner had ruled the February 10 death of an agitated 54-year-old man was caused by being shocked excessively with a Taser.

The finding indicated that the 57-second shock was sufficient, in and of itself, to have killed the man. Why such a long shock (ten times the usual amount) was administered has not been explained.

Although the Chicago police force will continue to use the Tasers they already have, an order for additional units was suspended.

Taser has vigorously defended its stun guns in every situation where it has been linked to an injury or death. The company continues to maintain that Tasers are non-lethal and that all of the reports regarding deaths and injuries associated with the device are baseless and can be explained away on the basis of other causes.

A recent training bulletin issued by Taser, however, advised police that “repeated, prolonged, and/or continuous exposures to the Taser may cause strong muscle contractions that may impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm.”

Given all of this information, it is difficult to image how the Canadian Police Research Institute reached its conclusion that the benefits of the Taser and similar devices outweigh the risks they pose to anyone who is shocked with any of them. It now appears that the courts will be the forum in which the final verdict on the Taser will be rendered.

A Review of Conducted Energy Devices

August 22, 2005
One of the authors of this review was Sgt. Darren Laur, a former Taser Shareholder

Police in 5 states sue Taser in past 2 weeks

Robert Anglen
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 20, 2005 12:00 AM

Police officers in five states filed lawsuits against Scottsdale-based Taser International over the past two weeks claiming they were seriously injured after being shocked with the electronic stun gun during training classes.

Among them is a Missouri police chief who says he suffered heart damage and two strokes when he volunteered to be shocked while hooked up to a cardiac monitor as a way to demonstrate the safety of the Taser to his officers.

Four of the suits were filed in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of officers in Florida, Kansas, New Mexico and Ohio who claim they suffered "severe and permanent" injuries, including multiple spinal fractures, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries. advertisement

In St. Louis on Thursday, Hallsville Police Chief Pete Herring filed a lawsuit claiming "painful, permanent and progressive" hearing and vision loss and neurological damage in addition to the strokes and cardiac damage.

Chief agreed to do it

Herring's lawyer, Spencer Eisenmenger, said Friday that the chief agreed to be the first officer shocked during an April 2004 training class for the department's newly purchased Tasers.

"Chief Herring was attached to an EKG when he was shocked with a Taser . . . He agreed as chief of police to be the first person shocked," Eisenmenger said. "(Hallsville) has no Taser program right now."

The suits challenge Taser's principal safety claim and accuse the company of misleading law enforcement about the extent of potential injuries. They also accuse company officials of concealing reports of injuries to at least a dozen other law enforcement officers.

Taser has marketed the weapons to 7,000 law enforcement agencies. Company officials have not only encouraged police officers to experience Taser shocks, they have used those shocks to promote the gun's safety, claiming that 100,000 officers have been shocked without a single serious injury.

Taser statement

Taser Vice President Steve Tuttle said in a statement Friday that the company would fight all of the lawsuits.

"We are aware of the filings in Arizona and intend to aggressively fight any such claims," he said.

"We have not been served papers regarding the Missouri filing but will aggressively defend this matter."

In an Aug. 3 memo to law enforcement officials, Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith acknowledged that, "we've had a small number of volunteers experience injuries similar to athletic exertion." But he said realistic training carries a risk of injury and suggested that the company should not be held liable for those injuries.

"Imagine if the shoe manufacturer Nike was sued every time an athlete sprained an ankle," Smith wrote.

Phoenix lawyer John Dillingham, who represents the police officers in Florida, Kansas, New Mexico and Ohio, said Smith's comparison is ridiculous.

Not the same as Nike

"This is not the same as wearing a Nike tennis shoe and spraining an ankle. It's more like breaking an ankle every time you tie the laces on a Nike shoe," he said.

"Every time an officer takes a hit from Taser, they are at risk."

In their lawsuits, the four officers allege they were injured in training classes between August 2003 and October 2004. They say that Taser instructors did not reveal any medical information suggesting that the guns could cause injuries and they claim the company has ignored important research suggesting the guns could be extremely dangerous, if not fatal.

Some allegations

The 104-page complaints filed Aug. 5 each allege that Taser was aware of injuries to other officers but did nothing to warn police departments, "knowing full well that such a reported serious injury would have devastating ramifications on its safety claims and, most importantly, its most-effective sales tool, the law enforcement training program."

Specifically, the lawsuits point to the injury of former Maricopa County sheriff's Deputy Samuel Powers, who filed the first product liability suit against Taser in February 2004 and claims that his back was fractured when he was shocked during a training exercise two years earlier.

Misreporting the facts?

Although Taser officials were notified of Powers' fractured back, four of the lawsuits accuse the company of continually misreporting the injury to shareholders and the public as a minor shoulder injury, even after a doctor hired by Taser concluded in September that a one-second Taser jolt was responsible for Powers fractured back.

Dillingham said that if Taser had taken steps to warn officers in September of the possibility of injury, other officers might have avoided being injured.

He pointed to Belle Glade (Fla.) police Officer John Gerdon, who claims in his lawsuit that he suffered spinal fractures and burns when he was shocked during a training class in October.

He said in his suit that Taser instructors and training materials all told him the stun gun had not and could not cause an injury.

In the Missouri suit, Police Chief Herring said he was given the same assurances before he demonstrated the device.

Eisenmenger said the chief, who is 6-foot-10 and weighs 300 pounds, insisted that he be hooked up to a machine that measures cardiac functions to show other officers that the stun gun was safe.

"He was assured by the defendant in this case that no harm could come of it," he said.

Drugs shadow Taser cases

August 14, 2005
Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post

Gordon Randall Jones

In July 2002, an Orange County deputy shocked Gordon Randall Jones with a Taser 14 times in four minutes on the day the 37-year-old Orlando man died. Jones had taken cocaine that day and was acting strangely when deputies came to remove him from a hotel where he was a paid guest. But Jones had not been violent and was not being arrested for a crime when the Taser darts hit him in the back, crumbling him to the floor.

A lobby surveillance tape shows Jones lying, sometimes still, sometimes writhing, while a circle of deputies stands near him, some with arms folded, waiting for him to follow orders to put his hands behind his back.

Eventually, deputies discussed another plan to gain control over Jones, who had bloody drool frothing from his mouth. By then, observers in the lobby had begged deputies to stop shocking him. One woman had fled from the smell of burning flesh.

According to depositions, deputies didn't tell paramedics about the repeated Taser shocks as they loaded Jones facedown into an ambulance.

He died on the way to a hospital.

The Orange County deputy chief medical examiner found Jones suffocated, with Taser shocks and cocaine intoxication contributing.

The Taser shocks, Dr. William Anderson said, interfered with the muscles Jones needed to breathe, making him already short of breath when he was eventually handcuffed lying on his chest.

As a result, Anderson said, Jones' blood was starved of oxygen.

Orange County officials hired Pennsylvania-based pathologist Cyril Wecht to take another look. Wecht found Jones' death resulted primarily from cocaine intoxication, with being restrained facedown reduced to a contributing cause. The multiple Taser shocks did not contribute to his death, Wecht said.

"Which doesn't make sense, when you think about it," Anderson said. If being placed in a position that makes breathing difficult contributed to Jones' death, he said, the Taser shocks that interrupted his breathing would have contributed as well.

Taser later hired Wecht as a paid consultant to "independently review" deaths following the weapon's use, according to a letter the company sent to medical examiners.

Court asked to force Taser death inquest

August 10, 2005
JONATHAN WOODWARD, Globe & Mail

VANCOUVER -- More than a year after a man died after being shocked with a Taser-brand stun gun by Vancouver police, his family is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to force a coroner's inquest into his death.

Patti Gillman said she wants to see for herself reports describing why her brother Robert Bagnell died, and she wants the police to finish their investigation.

"We want closure," she said. "We want to be able to see what happened the night my brother died. That's been really hard on us.

"The legal costs are rising with all of the delays that have occurred in the last several months. I don't know how much longer we can afford to wait without any results."

Mr. Bagnell died on June 23, 2004, high on cocaine and barricaded in a bathroom on the fifth floor of a Granville Street hotel.

While trying to remove him, two officers shocked the struggling 54-year-old twice with the 50,000-volt device. His heart stopped.

At the time, the man's family was told he died of a cocaine overdose. A month later, police told them of the stun gun's use, and seven weeks after the death, police said the situation was "urgent" because there was a fire in the building.

In the petition, Ms. Gillman's lawyer, Cameron Ward, claims that the Coroners Service has neglected or refused to schedule an inquest.

Chief Coroner Terry Smith said a coroner's inquest is mandatory when there is a death in police custody, but it can't begin during an investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

"If these things are being concurrently evaluated, it makes obvious good sense to hold the criminal stuff first so as not to taint it by holding an inquest prematurely."

On Aug. 5, 2004, the police complaint commissioner ordered an investigation by the Victoria police department into stun gun use and into the death.

They released recommendations on stun gun use on June 14, but the investigation into Mr. Bagnell's death has been extended three times from its original Feb. 5 deadline. It's now set to finish Sept. 15.

On top of that, the Crown has requested more information from the police departments to assess whether any police officers should be criminally charged.

That investigation has no time limit.

"If that was all completed, we'd move right now," Mr. Smith said.

"[Mr. Bagnell's family's] efforts would be better focused on letting these processes finish rather than filing petitions in court. I don't think it's particularly productive."

Coroner's inquests are fact-finding hearings that neither assign blame nor lay criminal charges, but rather determine the circumstances of a death.

Mr. Ward said it's time for a coroner's inquest.

He said he wants to look at documents related to Mr. Bagnell's death to investigate the family's questions.

"We've got to look at the results of the autopsy and consult experts . . . to try and determine what it all means," he said. "The family has been completely in the dark for the last 14 months."

In North America, 147 people have died since 1999 after being struck with a stun gun.

"We need a moratorium on taser use until we can figure out what is killing these people," Ms. Gillman said. "I feel for those families as well if they're going through anything we've gone through over the past year. I hope they have some idea of what they're in for."

In some cases, Tasers can kill, company warns

August 4, 2005
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
St. Petersburg Times

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stun gun maker says subjects in a state of excited delirium are at risk, and law enforcement officials say they are training users to recognize symptoms.

TAMPA - Taser International, maker of the controversial stun guns used by thousands of law enforcement agencies from Tampa Bay to London, has issued a training bulletin that warns repeated blasts of the Taser can "impair breathing and respiration."

For subjects in a state known as excited delirium, repeated or prolonged stuns with the Taser can contribute to "significant and potentially fatal health risks," according to a recent posting on Taser International's Web site.

The three-page bulletin, which comes as the Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg police departments prepare to outfit officers with stun guns, appears to counter instructions in a training manual issued last year by Taser International last year.

It also departs from the manufacturer's previous dismissals of safety concerns raised by groups such as Amnesty International, which has documented 129 U.S. and Canadian deaths of people stunned by Tasers.

Most deaths were later attributed to drugs, pre-existing heart problems and excited delirium, a psychotic and typically drug-induced state in which the heart is susceptible to cardiac arrest.

But last month, a medical examiner in Chicago became the first in the United States to attribute a criminal suspect's death to a Taser. The suspect had methamphetamine in his system when the officer stunned him, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Taser vice president of communications Steve Tuttle wrote in an e-mail this week that the company is simply reminding officers to use "only the necessary amount of force" when stunning suspects.

St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon is aware of the bulletin, but it won't affect his recent decision to let officers carry Tasers, said agency spokesman Bill Proffitt. "People in this excited delirium state are already at death's doorstep, and we already have to restrain them to get them medical care," Proffitt said. "The training that we provide officers will include the ability to recognize symptoms, and it will go over the limitations on use of the weapon and the necessary medical procedures."

Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said agency leaders attended a seminar in April in which excited delirium and the use of Tasers were discussed. Since then, deputies have been advised during roll call about the symptoms, he said.

The department's policy, like those of other large agencies in Tampa Bay, does not address the issue of multiple, prolonged firings.

But it advises deputies to consider other options besides Tasers for subjects who are very young or very old. Pinellas deputies are not to use Tasers on pregnant women.

"At this point it doesn't appear the bulletin will impact our policy," McMullen said.

Tampa police Cpl. Tommy Downes, a longtime sniper team member, said any use of force - hand-to-hand, Tasers or pepper spray - is more of a health risk for subjects high on drugs or in some other psychotic state.

"Their pain receptors aren't working, they're overheated, they're super strong," Downes said. "Yet if you have someone who's tearing up a place or attacking people and exhibiting all the hallmarks of excited delirium, you have to do something."

The Tampa Police Department and Hillsborough Sheriff's Office are working to craft new Taser use policies that mirror each other. Neither policy currently addresses multiple firings, but they prohibit "indiscriminate or punitive" Taser use.

Hillsborough deputies are trained to use the Taser "until the person quits resisting arrest," Sheriff David Gee said.

Company: Taser can be lethal

July 31, 2005
Lateef Mungin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Multiple shocks with a Taser could impair breathing and even lead to death, the stun gun's manufacturer says in a new warning to law enforcement agencies. The three-page bulletin, posted on the Taser International Inc. Web site and e-mailed to the company's 19,500 certified trainers, contradicts past statements the company has made to the public and law enforcement, as well as its own training manual, last issued in November 2004.

In fact, the 239-page training manual issued by the Arizona-based company contained its own contradictions, both urging officers to use multiple shocks to subdue unruly suspects and warning against it.

"This is a much stronger emphasis than they had before," Duluth police Maj. Don Woodruff, a certified Taser instructor, said of the new bulletin. "In the past they just told us that if you have a guy who is not compliant, just stun him again. There wasn't that much talk about the health effects."

The company's warning stops short of linking the Taser to the more than 100 people who have died since 2001 after being shocked. Multiple shocks were administered in many of these deaths, including those of two men in Gwinnett County, each of whom died after being shocked at least three times with a Taser.

The Taser, marketed as a nonlethal weapon, is used by about 7,000 domestic law enforcement agencies, including 217 in Georgia, according to Taser International.

The company's president and founder, Tom Smith, said the warning, posted on the Web site June 28, was nothing new. He described it as updating statements the company had made in its training manuals.

"We are just being more specific than we were before," Smith said.

The 2004 Taser training manual did warn police against multiple blasts of the Taser — once, on page 158. But that warning is contradicted at least three times in the same manual, including on page 157, where Taser users are instructed to use multiple shocks on subjects.

"The students should anticipate using additional cycles to subdue suspects," it reads. "[The first] cycle changes the behavior, and the subsequent cycles allow for apprehension in most cases."

The training manual also stated that multiple blasts of the Taser occurred in 32 percent of the incidents police had reported to Taser International.

The new bulletin, beyond warning officers three times that repeated Taser shocks can impair breathing and lead to death, also describes specific injuries that could result from multiple or prolonged use of the 50,000-volt stun gun.

It said multiple shocks could also cause strong muscle contractions that could cause injuries to "tissues, organs, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, joints and stress/compression fractures to bones." It also contained various other recommended safety measures, such as not aiming the weapon at a suspect's eyes.

The company has been buffeted by more than 20 lawsuits, including some filed by police officers who say they were hurt while training with Tasers. Taser sales and the company's stock have declined steadily as the death toll, now at 103 according to Amnesty International, has risen.

A major part of Taser's defense for years has been that a medical examiner has never named the weapon as a cause of death. That changed last week when a Chicago coroner named the Taser as the primary cause of a jailed prisoner's death.

In the Chicago case, police Tasered a suspect two times and one of the blasts was prolonged — 57 seconds. The company counsels against both multiple and prolonged shocks in the new bulletin.

Too late?

The new warning will undoubtedly prompt some police agencies to question the safety of Tasers, said Illinois attorney Paul Geller, who recently filed a class action against the company alleging Taser overstated the guns' safety.

"It seems that Taser is finally attempting to change its position on the safety of the weapons," said Geller, who represents the Dolton, Ill., Police Department. "But they should have made these statements earlier. We still have a situation where police departments were misled to believe that this weapon is safe when it is not."

Taser International has staunchly defended its weapons, stating that the guns have been used safely by law enforcement officers in the field more than 45,000 times since 1999.

Overall, they have been used safely more than 100,000 times, including demonstration firings, the company said.

The company's medical research finds that the weapons "generally" do not cause death, according to the new warning. But the document advises police to seek to control an unruly suspect immediately after the first blast rather than using the weapon again.

Some police departments are heeding the new warning.

"When our next class begins, our training will be modified," said Gwinnett police spokesman Darren Moloney, who said the department would make an effort to minimize multiple shocks.

"One of the changes in policy is that when an officer is deploying the Taser, and there are other officers present to assist, the subject will be restrained and handcuffed during the Tasing process."

No quick reaction

At least one metro Atlanta police department said it was not aware of the warning.

"We are unfamiliar with this warning and will have to research it," said Henry County police Lt. Jason Bolton.

Several other agencies, including the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department, either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries. The Gwinnett Sheriff's Department changed its Taser policy after the latest death of a suspect subdued at the county jail — its second such case.

The new policy forbids Gwinnett deputies from placing the stun gun directly on the body of a handcuffed inmate and shocking him if there are enough deputies to restrain the prisoner.

The Georgia State Patrol is aware of the new warning bulletin and may change its Taser policy, said Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the agency, which has 200 Tasers.

"But it is really not an issue with us," Wright said. "Most of the time in our cases, the subject is compliant right after the first Tasing."

Police should avoid multiple blasts of the Taser "to minimize the potential for overexertion of the subject," according to the new warning. In addition, extended Taser shocks can harm people who are suffering from "excited delirium," the bulletin states.

"Excited delirium is a potentially fatal condition caused by a complex set of physiological conditions," according to the warning. "These subjects are at significant and potentially fatal health risks from further prolonged exertion and/or impaired breathing."

Excited delirium was named as the cause of death in 18 Taser-related cases, according to Amnesty International. Sometimes seen in drug abusers, those experiencing excited delirium often display erratic behavior and almost superhuman strength, medical experts say.

Less force better

Smith, the Taser president, said he did not think the new training bulletin called into question past medical examiners' rulings in which a Taser was ruled out as a contributing factor in a death.

"We were just basically trying to remind police to use the minimal amount of applications needed to control the situation," Smith said.

Taser maker to seek court review of death ruling

July 30, 2005
Frank Main, Chicago Sun-Times

taser shocks ruled cause of death

July 30, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser shocks ruled cause of death
Company disputes first such finding

A Chicago medical examiner has ruled that shocks from a Taser were responsible for the death of a man in February, marking the first time that the electronic stun gun has been named as the primary cause of death.

This is the latest challenge to Scottsdale-based Taser International's claim that its stun guns have never caused a death or serious injury and comes a week after an Illinois police department filed a class-action lawsuit claiming Taser misled law enforcement agencies about the safety of its weapon.

The death is the 18th case in which a coroner has cited Taser as a factor in someone's death and the fourth case where Taser has been named as a cause of death. But in all of those, Taser was secondary to other factors such as drugs, heart conditions or mental illness.

An autopsy report from the Cook County's Medical Examiner's Office attributed the death of Ronald Hasse, 54, to electrocution from two Taser jolts delivered by a Chicago police officer. The autopsy said methamphetamines contributed to Hasse's death.

Taser strongly criticized the Medical Examiner's Office in a statement Friday and said it will challenge the autopsy.

"We believe that the scientific and medical community will publicly challenge this conclusion based upon the lack of credible evidence," Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle wrote in an e-mail on Friday. "Taser International will seek a judicial review of the report and the basis for which those statements were made."

This is not the first time Taser has challenged a medical examiner. For years, Taser officials publicly said the stun gun was never cited in an autopsy report. But an Arizona Republic investigation last year revealed that Tasers have been cited repeatedly by medical examiners in death cases and that Taser did not start collecting autopsy reports until last April.

Taser officials later maintained that the medical examiners in those cases were wrong and did not have the credentials or expertise necessary to examine deaths involving stun guns. They now maintain that Tasers have never been cited by a medical examiner as "the sole cause of death."

The Republic has identified 140 cases of death in the United States and Canada following a police Taser shock since 1999. Of those, coroners said, Taser was a cause of death in four cases and a contributing factor in 10 cases. In four other cases, medical examiners said Taser could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

In his e-mail on Friday, Tuttle said Hasse's death should likely have been blamed on the methamphetamines.

"We sincerely hope that a groundless opinion will not overshadow the medical and scientific community's conclusions as to the lethal levels of methamphetamine use," he said in the statement. "Overlooking this as a primary cause of death contradicts the very nature and purpose of these known lethal values."

Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner Scott Denton said that drugs alone would not have caused Hasse's death. A five-second shock followed by a 57-second shock pushed Hasse "over the edge," Denton told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"That's extraordinary," Denton said. "He became unresponsive and died after this."

Hasse, a former securities trader who was supposed to go on trial in June in the burial of a body on an Indiana farm, confronted officers in a Chicago high-rise.

Police said they used the Taser on Hasse when he tried to kick and bite officers during a struggle. He also threatened to infect paramedics with HIV.

After Hasse's death, Chicago police halted plans for a Taser expansion. Denton told the Sun-Times that police should stop using Tasers on people who are acting psychotic or appear to be under the influence of drugs.

Denton, who grew up in Scottsdale, did not return The Republic's calls for an interview on Friday. According to a Web site for the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association, Denton has worked at the Office of the Medical Examiner of Cook County for nine years. He is also an assistant professor in the pathology department at Rush University Medical Center. He got his medical degree from the University of Arizona.

Denton told the Sun-Times that he reviewed thousands of pages of information provided by Taser. But he said his conclusion was also based on the findings of James Ruggieri, an electrical engineer who in February made a presentation to the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in which he said Taser shocks could cause cardiac arrest.

Ruggieri, who is a forensic engineer and has consulted with police departments and the military on electrical accidents, said shocks from Taser could cause delayed ventricular fibrillation, the irregular heartbeat characteristic of a heart attack. He also said that multiple shocks from a Taser could cause someone to stop breathing and go into cardiac arrest. He said that many deaths involving Tasers have likely been wrongly dismissed as simple heart attacks or drug overdoses.

Taser has challenged Ruggieri's credentials and said its own medical and electrical experts dispute his findings. Taser maintains that its guns have undergone dozens of tests through universities and the Department of Defense, which support its claim of safety.

Tuttle said Friday that Denton should not have relied on "an unsubstantiated theoretical position of electrical safety as presented by James Ruggieri."

Ruggieri said that he doesn't know Denton. He said the doctor contacted him once in February to get a copy of his academy presentation. But Ruggieri said Friday that he is not surprised by the medical examiner's conclusion.

"It was only a matter of time," he said. "All of the impartial people - doctors, scientists, pathologists - took heed of this. They now have had facts to look at when presented with death cases involving Taser."

Taser, in a June 28 training bulletin, advised police that "repeated, prolonged and/or continuous exposures to the Taser may cause strong muscle contractions that may impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm."

In training classes and instruction manuals, Taser has previously told police to use repeated shocks to control a suspect.

The stun guns have been sold to more than 7,000 law enforcement agencies in the country and are credited with reducing injuries and deaths to suspects and officers and lowering the number of police shootings. But several law enforcement agencies, including the department in Birmingham, Ala., and the Lucas County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office, have pulled the guns from the street.

Last week, Dolton, Ill., filed a class-action lawsuit against Taser, becoming the first police department to take legal action over what it described as Taser's exaggerated claims of safety. The city said it paid $8,572 for stun guns that are too dangerous to use on the street.

Taser stock, which soared last year, dropped by a third this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona Attorney General's Office announced separate inquiries into the company's claims of safety.

The price of Taser stock was down about 26 cents on Friday, to $9.72 per share.

Taser Killed Man, Pathologist Finds

July 29, 2005
Frank Main, Chicago Sun-Times

Taser faces class-action lawsuit

July 21, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Taser International, alleging that the company misled police departments across the country about the safety of its stun guns and left them with weapons that are too dangerous to use on the street.

The suit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Chicago, alleges the weapon has not been adequately tested and was sold to police through faulty marketing information.

The suit is filed on behalf of Dolton, Ill., a Chicago suburb with a population of 35,000.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Paul Geller, claims that police departments in four states have retained his firm for the lawsuit but would drop the suit if Taser would take back the guns.

"That's what we want. Take back your product and give back our money," Geller said in an interview from his office in Boca Raton, Fla.

This is the first known lawsuit by a city or police department challenging Taser's statements about the science and safety of the stun guns. It comes amid a growing number of deaths after Taser shocks that have left cities across the country rethinking stun-gun purchases.

Taser did not respond to specific questions about the lawsuit. Taser vice president and general counsel Doug Klint issued a statement via e-mail denouncing the suit and saying the company stands by the safety of its stun gun.

"The claims made in the lawsuit are based on inaccurate and incomplete news clippings rather than independent review and scientific fact," Klint said. "To date there have been dozens of independent studies conducted by leading medical and law-enforcement experts, the U.S. Department of Defense, the United Kingdom Home Office and other countries each of which support Taser technology's safety and effectiveness relative to other use-of-force alternatives."

More than 7,000 law-enforcement agencies in the United States have armed their officers with Tasers. Police departments, including Phoenix, have praised the stun gun, saying it has reduced injuries to officers and suspects and has led to fewer police shootings.

But Dolton Mayor William Shaw said his police department should not have purchased Tasers.

"Sometimes you make a mistake, and this was a mistake," said Shaw, who is a former Illinois state senator. "The basic problem is they need far more testing than what is out there."

Shaw said he and Police Chief Ronald Burge suspended Taser use in May, a few months after paying $8,572 for the weapons. He said they became concerned after deaths in other cities. Shaw pointed to cases in Chicago and Birmingham, Ala., whereofficials halted distribution of the guns to officers or pulled them off the street.

He said that $8,572 is a significant amount of money for a city the size of Dolton but far less than the financial risk of a wrongful-death suit.

"One person losing their life could be much, much more expensive," Shaw said.

Taser maintains that its stun guns have never caused a death or serious injury.

An ongoing investigation by The Arizona Republic has identified 140 deaths in the United States and Canada after police Taser shocks since 1999. Of those, medical examiners have cited the Taser in 17 deaths, saying it was a cause of death in three cases and a contributing factor in 10 others. In four cases, medical examiners said the stun gun could not be ruled out as a cause of death.

"My view is that the police want to know what are the safety parameters," Geller said. "We view our lawsuit to be very, very supportive of police."

Wife turned to police to help husband

July 20, 2005
CBC News

A Digby woman whose husband died in police custody says she had asked the RCMP to arrest him so he could get treatment for his mental disorder.

Helen Saulnier says her husband Paul was in Yarmouth Regional Hospital twice in the last two years for psychiatric evaluations, but his condition got worse each time he left the hospital.

After the second time, she filed a harassment complaint against him with the police.

"I did speak to the police [Friday] and it was something I did not really want to talk to them about. But I felt that it is something that, in order to get him into the hospital, that this is something that had to be done," Saulnier said.

While Paul Saulnier was being arrested at the RCMP detachment in Digby, he tried to escape. He died after officers subdued him with pepper spray, a baton and a Taser gun.

Carol Tooton, with the Canadian Mental Health Association, said she doesn't know much about this incident, but trying to force people to stay on their medication often causes problems.

"As much as we'd like to say, 'Yes, stay on your medication and everything will be all right,' often times that's never going to be the reality. And I think we're going to have to be prepared to accept the choices that some people make," Tooton said.

Better community programs to support people with mental illness are needed, she said.

Man dead after being tasered

July 4, 2005
Brooke Larsen, Now Contributor

"I just can't believe how many officers came - at least 10 or 12. They didn't need to storm the house like that. He was just a tiny man," said Nicole Saville.

Break-in suspect dies shortly after being shot by stun gun

July 2, 2005
JONATHAN JENKINS, TORONTO SUN

ONLY A few days after Niagara police front-line supervisors were issued Tasers, a man died yesterday shortly after being shot with one.

"They told me he went into a house and all that, but they also said they used that Taser gun on him," Apat Foldi, the father of James Foldi, 39, said.

"He was going around in circles and the police didn't want to go near him. So they used this gun on him and boom -- done."

Niagara police said they were called out to Beamsville around 2:30 a.m. after several complaints of a man breaking into homes.

They said they tracked down a suspect in the area and arrested him, then noticed right away he needed medical attention

He was taken to West Lincoln hospital and pronounced dead.

The province's Special Investigations Unit confirmed a Taser was used on Foldi.

"An autopsy is being held as we speak and the pathologist is determining what the cause of death is -- we'll go from there," SIU spokesman Rose Bliss said.

"Obviously, it's also important to note the Taser is an approved, less-than-lethal-use-of-force weapon that the police are authorized to use."

Apat Foldi said he last spoke to his son on Tuesday.

"He was fine, everything was no problem," he said.

He acknowledged his son did have problems with drugs and alcohol and wondered whether that may have played a role.

"They test them on normal people. They don't test people on alcohol or drugs to see if it works on them," Foldi said.

"If someone's drunk or on drugs and they use it on them, maybe it kills them."

However, Foldi stressed he didn't know many details of what happened and was waiting to see the result of the investigation before he came to any conclusion.

"I have to wait to see what's coming out of it," he said.

Niagara cops announced May 13 that front-line supervisors would begin carrying Tasers on routine patrol starting in the last week of June.

Members of Niagara's Emergency Response Unit also carry the weapons, as do tactical teams in Toronto, Peel and Durham.

At least nine people have died after being hit with Tasers in Canada since the weapon was approved.

Alternative to taser needed, coroner says

July 2, 2005
JONATHAN WOODWARD, Globe & Mail

VANCOUVER -- The death of a fifth person in B.C. after being shocked with a taser means that police and the medical community need to look for other ways to deal with a condition known as "excited delirium," the province's chief coroner says.

Some thrashing, violent people have elevated hormone levels that put them at risk no matter what type of restraint -- handcuffs, pepper spray, or electrical shock -- police use to subdue them, Terry Smith said yesterday.

"It's a medical emergency, in the truest sense of the word," he said. "Do we need to look at the taser? Absolutely. Certainly, nobody's going to dismiss the fact that we need to determine what the physiological impact, if any, of the taser is.

"But whether you put that person [who is in a state of excited delirium] in handcuffs or you put them in a straitjacket and strap them to a gurney, there's a high probability of negative outcome, even death."

Early Thursday, 41-year-old Gurmeet Sandhu was shocked with up to 50,000 volts from a taser in an altercation with the RCMP outside his Surrey home.

His wife told reporters that her husband was shocked multiple times, while the Surrey RCMP say they are waiting for their investigation to finish before the circumstances of the death can be confirmed.

Mr. Sandhu died two weeks after the Victoria police department released a long-awaited report on taser use. It had been commissioned in response to the death of Robert Bagnell in his Granville Street hotel room after he was subdued with a taser in June of 2003.

The report said police should get more training on taser use, deploy the weapon only when people are actively resisting arrest or posing a threat to others, and that the device shouldn't be used multiple times.

The report also said a person shocked by a taser should be restrained in a way that allows them to breathe easily.

Constable Mark Searle of the Surrey RCMP said he couldn't comment on whether police had followed the report's recommendations. He did say, however, that the attending officer had felt he was in danger and pressed an emergency button to call for help.

"That's a drop-everything call," he said, adding that the officers had gone through their full possible range of options -- using physical force, pepper spray, and finally, the taser weapon -- in attempting to subdue Mr. Sandhu.

Mr. Smith's warning about the use of tasers came on the same day that a man in Beamsville, Ont., died after police used a stun gun in his arrest.

The B.C. Coroner's Office has begun investigating Mr. Sandhu's death, Mr. Smith said. It will perform an autopsy and do toxicology tests to determine the levels of drugs that were in Mr. Sandhu's body. Mr. Smith said he didn't know when the investigation would be complete.

Gannett papers sued by Taser International over stories

July 2, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser International Inc. filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that USA Today and The Arizona Republic published inaccurate information about its electric stun gun.

Taser, which is facing inquiries by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona Attorney General's Office over the safety of the weapon, accused the newspapers' parent company, Gannett Co., Inc., of libel, invasion of privacy and damaging its business.

"Over the course of this biased campaign, more than one billion dollars of shareholder value has been erased," Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said in a statement Friday. "Further, we have reason to believe that some law-enforcement agencies delayed deploying Taser devices based on this false and misleading information."

Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell said the company would study the complaint before it issued a comment.

The focus of the suit is the content of a June 3 USA Today article, which Taser says overstated the electrical output of a Taser stun gun.

USA Today published a correction three days later, saying that "due to a mathematical error, the original version of this story significantly overstated the amount of electricity delivered by a Taser."

Taser also accused The Republic of "unfairly impugning the safety aspects" of Taser and "groundlessly linking" the stun gun to more than 100 deaths.

An ongoing investigation by The Republic has identified 120 people who have died in the United States and Canada since 1999 after a police Taser strike. Of those, medical examiners have cited Taser in 17 deaths.

In autopsy reports, the medical examiners list Taser as a cause of death in three cases and a contributing factor in 10 cases. In four other cases, they could not rule out Taser as a cause of death.

Taser controversy refuses to die

June 30, 2005
Matthew Davis, BBC News, Washington

With electronic stun guns now being used by a growing number of UK police forces, BBC News examines the controversy in North America, where a series of deaths have put Tasers under fresh scrutiny.

When Robert Bagnell died in Canada last June, his family were told he had suffered a probable cocaine overdose.

The truth emerged in fits and starts, however. They eventually learned that police had jolted him with 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser gun.

Officers said they had to subdue Mr Bagnell to save him from a fire.

But a year on, questions over his death are still unanswered, while concerns over the safety of stun guns refuse to go away.

The "less-than-lethal" weapons have been involved in 74 deaths in the United States and Canada, according to Amnesty International. "These reports clearly indicate that the Taser technology, while not risk-free, is among the safest use-of-force options our law enforcement officers have"

It also claims Tasers have been used gratuitously - against children or the elderly or on people posing no real threat.

In a sign of mounting concern over the effects of the weapons, Chicago police halted deployment of Tasers in February after a teenager suffered cardiac arrest and a man died after being stunned.

For Patti Gillman - Robert Bagnell's sister - too many mistakes are being made.

"It is far more than a coincidence that my brother was shot by a Taser, then died of a heart failure.

"We believe he was having a seizure at the time police stunned him. But he was unarmed, not posing a threat.

"The first response should have been medical attention, not assaulting him with a weapon."

Vancouver police say they are still awaiting a final report into the death, but believe stun guns are safe to use.

Tasers 'relatively safe'

The widely used M26 Taser gun delivers a 50,000-volt shock through two barbed darts, which incapacitate people for five seconds.

Rick Smith, CEO of Taser International, says that while it is "not risk-free" it is "among the safest use-of-force options our law enforcement officers have".

He blames Amnesty's report for a downturn in business which has seen Taser's stock lose more than 60% of its value in the first quarter of this year, wiping $1.4bn off its market value.

In a statement he said: "Anyone living in the real world in which law enforcement officers worldwide have to make split-second life or death decisions knows that Amnesty International's report and position is out of step with the needs of law enforcement concerning our proven life-saving technology."

A report in March by the US Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said current research suggested stun guns were "relatively safe" when used appropriately.

It noted that in all the cases in the Amnesty report, other factors like drug use and pre-existing heart conditions could also have led to the deaths.

But the institute called for more research, particularly in understanding exactly how the weapons work on the body - and what the long-term side effects could be.

'Learn from mistakes'

Meanwhile, the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ)is funding several studies in to what is describes as "less lethal weapons issues".

"I hope the British police, having given Canada and the US a bit of a head start, will tread carefully and learn from our mistakes"
Patti Gillman

Q&A: The stun gun

Last September it gave a $490,000 grant to the University of Wisconsin to study the effects of electro-muscular devices and how electrical currents move through the body.

It is also funding a International Association of Chiefs of Police study on best practice in use of the weapons.

The moves come as a number of UK police forces - where officers are not routinely armed - are embracing the weapons.

In May, a Police Review survey of 100 officers found 80% thought that all officers on frontline duties should be issued with stun guns.

More than half the public also want to see Tasers being deployed, according to the magazine, which polled 1,000 citizens.

The UK Home Office believes Tasers are safe to use, but says their use should be restricted to firearms-trained officers.

Patti Gillman, still searching for answers on her brother's death, sounded a cautionary note.

"The Taser issue is controversial in Canada only in certain circles, but is mostly ignored by the mainstream public," she said.

"But I suppose it's only background noise to most, until it enters your life as it did ours.

"I hope the British police, having given Canada and the US a bit of a head start, will tread carefully and learn from our mistakes."

Taser technology review - final report

June 14, 2005
Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner

One of the authors of this review was Sgt. Darren Laur, a former Taser Shareholder

Taser's Effects Fueling Concern

May 30, 2005
Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post

A deputy fired his Taser stun gun twice at the woman he was chasing — the second shot dropping her to the ground — before she announced that she was pregnant. "This was not apparent," the deputy wrote in his report, "but due to her statement I did not apply another Taser (shock)."

The report was one of more than 1,000 reviewed by The Palm Beach Post that show how Tasers have been used in the three years since departments in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast added them to their arsenals.

While a growing number of human rights watchers and scientists have voiced concerns about effects on pregnant women, children, elderly people and people with heart, neurological and psychiatric disorders, the review showed that police from Boca Raton to Fort Pierce have fired the weapons at:

• Six people 65 or older, including an 86-year-old man; and at least 35 people 16 and younger, including a 100-pound, 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl;

• 87 women of childbearing age, including at least three women who, after being shocked, said they were pregnant;

• At least 57 people who were high on drugs;

• At least 272 people who were shocked multiple times, including 67 shocked three times, 31 shocked four or more times and one man shocked nine times.

Some of these Taser firings ended violent confrontations in which immediate harm was possible, including encounters with armed and physically threatening suspects.

But in at least 237 incidents, the dart-firing stun gun was used only to get compliance from passively resisting or fleeing suspects.

Officers in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast fired Tasers at more than 1,000 people before Timothy Bolander died in December after being shocked four times by Delray Beach police. An autopsy found he had ingested a lethal level of drugs.

"Most of the people shot with Tasers live," said Ed Jackson, a spokesman for Amnesty International, which has called for a moratorium on the weapon's use. "It doesn't mean they are living without consequences."

He attributes Taser-use frequency to a belief that the weapon does no lasting harm.

"The idea that Tasers are generally safe is completely fictional," he said.

Taser International repeatedly has countered Amnesty International's criticisms by saying that the weapon has not been ruled the cause of any of the 103 deaths following shocks tracked by Amnesty.

"That's fine," Jackson says. "Where are the studies that show it's never been a contributing factor? Because that's the question we're asking."

Tasers have been cited in autopsies of at least two people who have died following shocks in Florida, which leads the nation in Taser-involved deaths with 24 since 1999. After a man shocked with a Taser in Escambia County died in January, a medical examiner declined to cite either a cause or manner of death, saying that not enough is known about the weapon's effects.

In November, excerpts of an Air Force study were released saying that Taser shocks can change blood chemistry, potentially leading to heart damage. The study recommended medical monitoring of those shocked with Tasers.

Study 'strongly recommends' more research

In March, a study by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said that Tasers can't be ruled out as a contributing cause of deaths that follow shocks.

"We strongly recommend that additional research be conducted at the organism, organ, tissue and cell levels," the report concluded. "The community needs to understand the specific effects of varying electrical wave forms... to include possible psychiatric and other nonlethal effects."

In the same month, forensic engineer James Ruggieri warned police departments that Taser shocks could damage the heart and cause delayed cardiac arrest. He advised that officers not be submitted to shocks during training.

Even the company that makes the stun gun, Taser International, urges caution about use of the weapon in the "drive-stun" mode and with repeated shocks — uses that The Post survey found have been frequent on the streets of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

When the two barbed prongs that Tasers shoot are ensnared in skin or clothing, they transmit 50,000 volts of current that override the nervous system and temporarily paralyze muscles. The greater the distance between the prongs, the more incapacitating the effect. Another five-second jolt can be administered by pulling the trigger again as long as the suspect hasn't ripped out one of the prongs.

Officers also can remove the prong cartridge and discharge the weapon directly against a person's body in the "drive-stun" mode to subdue combative arrestees with a searing jolt of pain.

The Taser training manual advises that because it is not incapacitating, this mode can lead to "prolonged struggles" and that "it is in these types of scenarios that officers are often facing accusations of excessive force."

The technique also requires some care, according to Taser International, but the company's guidelines contain conflicting recommendations. The manual points out that the neck and groin "have proven highly sensitive to injury, such as crushing to the trachea or testicles if applied forcefully." The manual continues, "However, these areas have proven highly effective targets."

A recent amendment to the DeLand Police Department's Taser policy is clearer, saying that the "drive-stun" mode can be used only under exceptional circumstances. Local policies don't address the use of the "drive-stun" mode in writing, although narratives in some of the reports examined by The Post acknowledge that this use is discouraged.

Still, the weapon was used in the drive-stun mode in encounters described in at least 209 of the 1,017 reports.

George Kirkham, a former police officer, Florida State University criminology professor and expert witness in cases involving in-custody deaths, says in many situations, officers can use their hands for "pressure pain tactics" with less risk of harm. He also says Taser has given insufficient guidance on how many times a person should be shocked in either mode.

"We have seen police officers firing it 20 times," he said, "with no idea that they could be doing harm."

One shock may not be sufficient to subdue

Even in its paralyzing mode, one shock may not be enough to subdue a violent suspect, according to the Taser training manual, which advises that officers "should anticipate a second or third application."

But the same manual also warns that prolonged, repeated Taser shocks "may impede breathing" and urges that officers "minimize the overall Taser exposure."

In Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, 273 reports document confrontations in which people were shocked multiple times — at least 31 people were shocked four or more times, including one man shocked at least nine times. In some reports, officers and deputies simply reported firing "until compliance was gained."

Shortly after Boca Raton police became the first department to use Tasers in 2001, they arrested a man who had been running naked in the streets. After he was handcuffed, he began to struggle violently, breaking a Plexiglas divider in the police car with his head and kicking officers.

Officers shocked him repeatedly with their new Tasers, subduing him briefly each time, but failing to stop him for long. After he had been shocked at least nine times, he went into convulsions and was taken to the hospital where he was found to have cocaine in his system.

"The question is whether Tasers are unsafe under those circumstances," said Dr. Jared Strote, a Washington state emergency room physician, who with a Harvard professor is conducting a study of Taser-involved deaths. People who are "deliriously high" experience blood chemistry changes that, combined with restraints and heart ailments, can be fatal even without a Taser shock, he says.

"My guess is that these people with their underlying conditions — both acute and chronic — don't have the reserve to tolerate the Taser, and it makes them more likely to go into a fatal heart rhythm after the shock."

Taser International anticipates more deaths

The man survived, but the report of his violent, erratic and apparently drug-induced behavior, as well as struggles with officers and repeated shocks, parallels the stories of almost all of those who have died following Taser shocks in Florida.

Taser International urges departments to be prepared for those stories. The company points out in its training materials that the weapon often is used when other means of control have failed with people using hard drugs and showing signs of a condition that medical examiners call "excited delirium," which can be fatal even without a Taser shock.

The firm includes an "In Custody Death Checklist" with its training materials.

In it, the company notes that it "anticipates more in-custody deaths given the significantly large deployments of Taser conducted energy weapons."

Are officers too quick to fire tasers?

May 29, 2005
Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post

Until November, Taser International's Web site stated that the weapon is "solely designed to stop the most hardened of targets: extremely violent, aggressive, goal-oriented and drug induced suspects."

Taser's Tuttle said that refers to "the 1-percenters with superhuman strength and mind-body disconnect." But he adds, the weapon can be used on suspects "up to" that level of resistance as well.

The wording no longer appears on Taser's Web site, but the company's manual used to train Taser instructors, says: "The Taser is best utilized in situations where a hostile or potentially hostile individual is threatening himself or another person." On its Web site, the company typically refers to the target of a Taser as "the attacker."

Third So-Called "Independent" TASER Study Linked to Manufacturer

May 23, 2005
Amnesty International

(Washington, DC)—Today Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), released the following statement regarding documents listing Taser International executives, consultants and businesses partners as panelists in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) TASER study. This discovery reported over the weekend by the Arizona Republic marks the third time in five months that the manufacturer has been linked to "independent" studies:

"Police departments around the world are purchasing TASERs based, in part, on constant reassurances from the manufacturer that numerous 'independent' studies have proven the electro-shock weapons to be safe and effective. But new revelations reported by the Arizona Republic over the weekend have made it abundantly clear that the company did not voluntarily reveal its connections to this study and the individuals who actually made the claim that TASERs are safe. In October 2004, a Taser International executive called the DoD report the 'granddaddy' of all independent studies. However, even as he made that claim, the company knew that their employees, business partners, and a long list of Taser's clients and supporters had participated in virtually every aspect of producing this report.

For example, the report states that the final version is a product that was reviewed by the 'Independent External Review Workshop.' But, Taser International has consistently failed to voluntarily reveal the fact that nearly half of the members of that panel were either employees of or had some other type of relationship with the company."

(End of Statement)

The Arizona Republic story marks the third time in five months that it has been revealed that Taser International has tried to hide its involvement in so-called independent studies. In January, media reports exposed information that three of the four researchers on an allegedly independent study were employees of Taser International and one was a paid consultant for the company. Two weeks ago, the public learned that the recipient of a $500,000 federal research grant tried to hide the fact that he would be paying Taser International's medical director $18,000 to consult on his supposedly independent study.

Amnesty International continues to call for comprehensive, independent medical studies to determine the risks TASER shocks pose to the general public. Everyday that TASER supporters refuse to engage in an honest debate and stonewall attempts to find answers to these questions is another day that the real, lifesaving potential of this new technology will go unrecognized.

Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun

May 21, 2005
Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

Taser International was deeply involved in a Department of Defense study that company officials touted to police departments and investors as "independent" proof of the stun gun's safety, according to government documents and e-mails obtained by The Arizona Republic and interviews with military officials.

This information is surfacing at a time when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Arizona attorney general are pursuing inquiries into safety claims that the Scottsdale firm has made.

The stun guns are being used by more than 7,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, but a series of deaths and injuries associated with the devices have raised safety concerns.

E-mails that military officials exchanged also reveal for the first time that they asked Taser to tone down public statements about the study. In addition, they urged the company to commission an independent study rather than rely on the Defense study.

The Air Force conducted the study for the Defense Department to assess the risks and effectiveness of Tasers so the military could decide whether to buy them.

Since October, Taser officials have contended that the company had no involvement in the Defense study, which helped fuel a sharp rise in the company's stock price last year.

Bulk of research

But information obtained by The Republic shows that Taser officials not only participated in three panels to determine the scope of the study, analyze data and review findings, it also provided the bulk of research material used in the study.

"Were they (Taser) totally disconnected (from the study)? The answer is no. They were not disconnected," said Larry Farlow, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory in Texas that oversaw the study.

Taser critics - civil rights lawyers, human rights activists and government officials - contend that there is insufficient evidence to support the company's assertions that the stun gun is safe. They have called for independent research.

Taser has repeatedly characterized research that its own employees or consultants helped conduct or write as independent. The company has also paid training fees and given valuable stock options to police officers involved in decisions to purchase the stun guns.

In an interview earlier this month, Steve Tuttle, Taser's vice president of communications, maintained the company's position that the Defense Department study was independent. He acknowledged that Taser employees had some involvement in the study but insisted that that did not influence the findings.

Taser officials have described the Defense research as "a major independent safety study." But Air Force researchers said the study was not meant to be a comprehensive review of stun-gun science or safety, and they made no findings on the device's safety.

Touting findings early on

Taser trumpeted results of the study long before the actual report came out on April 1. In an October news release, Taser Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said, "This comprehensive independent study further supports the safety of Taser" and "reaffirms the lifesaving value of Taser technology."

That announcement had an immediate impact on Taser stock: It shot up 60 percent during the next month. Taser executives and board members sold 1.28 million shares for $68 million in November.

Since then, the stock has dropped dramatically as a series of deaths caused cities nationwide to reconsider purchases of Tasers and to delay deployments.

An ongoing investigation by The Republic has found that medical examiners have cited Tasers in 15 deaths across the country. They called it a cause of death in three cases, a contributing factor in nine cases and said the stun gun couldn't be ruled out as a cause of death in three cases.

Taser maintains that its stun guns have never caused a death.

Taser involvement

When the Defense Department first released its study, it made no mention of who was involved in the study.

Another version obtained by The Republic shows that Taser's CEO, director of technical services, general counsel, medical director, chief instructor, electrical engineer and vice president of communications were involved in various panels over five months.

The report also shows that companies doing business with Taser, including General Dynamics, were heavily involved in the study and, along with Taser executives, sat on a final "Independent External Review Panel" to examine all the findings.

Farlow, the spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory, said his office, not Taser, made the decision to strike the names from the final report in order to protect the privacy of researchers and scientists.

A separate panel of medical and scientific experts that did not include Taser employees wrote the final report.

Tuttle, the Taser spokesman, said the company's involvement does not minimize the report's significance or its independence.

"This was all pre-planning stuff," he said. "We didn't do the study itself." He added that government rules require manufacturers to be involved in such reviews of their products. "If you are going to do a study of Milk Duds . . . you are going to have to talk to the (makers) of Milk Duds."

But, according to the Air Force, Taser provided most of the data used in the study, which was supposed to look at the "effectiveness" of Tasers in order to provide guidance for officials in charge of purchasing non-lethal weapons.

Information gaps

Although researchers determined the stun guns were "generally effective for their intended use," researchers found significant "data gaps" in the information Taser provided, Farlow said.

Chief among those gaps: enough information to determine whether Tasers can cause seizures or induce ventricular fibrillation, the sudden irregular heartbeat characterized by a heart attack.

In addition, Taser apparently did not provide some information about injuries involving the stun gun. For example, researchers said in the study that "no reports were identified that describe bone fractures resulting from the rapid induction of strong muscle contraction" caused by the stun gun.

At the time that Taser officials were sitting on the panel, they had already been served legal notice that a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy was going to sue the company over a fractured back that he reportedly suffered when shocked with a Taser during a training exercise.

Former Deputy Samuel Powers was the first to file a product liability lawsuit against Taser; his case is scheduled to go to trial in June. A doctor hired by Taser last year concluded that a one-second burst from a Taser was responsible for Powers' injury.

Since then, several police officers from departments across the country have come forward with allegations of bone fractures that they blame on Taser shocks.

The study concluded that Tasers may cause several unintended side effects, "albeit with estimated low probabilities of occurrence." It also said the need to "rely on a database of case reports compiled by manufacturers also generates uncertainty in the results."

Farlow pointed out that the Defense study made no conclusions about the stun gun's safety.

When asked about Taser's characterization of the research as a "major, independent safety study," Farlow said: "The simple answer is consider the source. . . . The press and public relations folks are doing their jobs."

E-mail correspondence

Despite the fact that the Air Force lab's study made no findings on safety, the government officials who commissioned the study allowed Taser to issue a news release saying that the Defense Department considered "Tasers generally safe and effective."

E-mails show that although these officials were concerned about Taser's characterization of the study, their desire to support Taser prevailed.

"I've expressed my personal view to (Taser) that the company might want to take a different approach to their (public affairs) efforts" and "i.e., tone it down," wrote Capt. Daniel McSweeney, spokesman for the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, a Pentagon office that recommended purchasing Tasers for the armed services.

"My opinion is that they probably want to commission an independent (human effects) study, in which a variety of stakeholders participate," McSweeney said in a January e-mail from his office in Quantico, Va. "To settle this issue once and for all."

Dave DuBay, a Taser vice president, confirmed that McSweeney asked the company to temper its statements. He said McSweeney felt Taser is sometimes "too passionate in defense" of its stun guns. DuBay also confirmed that McSweeney asked Taser to commission its own independent study.

But DuBay said the government's study was independent and questioned whether the public would perceive a Taser-sponsored study to be independent.

Despite McSweeney's concerns, he still recommended backing Taser.

McSweeney's rationale

"My rationale is that Taser is, in effect, some kind of partner to us, since we purchase and field their systems," he wrote in the same e-mail. "Not supporting them can hurt us in the public's eye."

At issue in the e-mails were requests from Taser asking the government to put out a news release declaring the stun guns safe.

The e-mails were written after reports in the New York Times and other media raised questions over Taser's claims about the Defense study and if researchers actually found the stun guns safe.

In an interview this week, McSweeney confirmed that he told Taser officials they should "tone it down" and conduct their own independent study.

"I was referencing not just to the (study) but other things I have been privy to," he said, adding that Taser has been at the center of several controversial issues. "Given the ongoing questions regarding the health effects of Taser, it would behoove Taser to do an independent study."

McSweeney acknowledged that the Defense study was not comprehensive but called it an "excellent first step" and said that more studies are under way. He said that non-lethal weapons are needed in military zones and that the study served "an urgent need" by providing a foundation for the Defense Department.

Monte Kwinter on Tasers

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
May 18, 2005

POLICE USE OF TASERS

Ms. Andrea Horwath (Hamilton East): My question is for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Minister, what are the provincial standards and protocols specifically governing the use of Tasers by police in Ontario?

Hon. Monte Kwinter (Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services): The member will know, or should know, that Tasers have been authorized for specific use in Ontario for some time. The only thing that has changed recently is that there was a particular Taser, an M26, and now there is a new and better Taser, an X26, and we've approved that for use. That is something that is available to police services across Ontario. They have protocols. They themselves have those protocols as to how they are to be used, and it's effective. We are convinced that they're less than lethal, and as a result they're a good alternative to a lethal weapon.**

Ms. Horwath: In Hamilton last week, police chased down a 15-year-old boy and shot him twice with a Taser. He didn't commit any crime. In fact, he wasn't even charged by police with any crime at all. When the police use Tasers on unarmed teenagers, frightened kids, don't you think there should be some Ontario standards for the police and their use of Tasers? Why haven't you developed any province-wide?

Hon. Mr. Kwinter: I can tell you that before we authorized the use of Tasers, we made sure that they were properly tested and that the proper procedures were in place. I cannot comment on a particular incident in a particular police service. That is something you have to deal with in that particular police service. I do not monitor the police services and their operation; that is the responsibility of the chiefs and their police services boards. All I can tell you is that in our ministry we evaluated the use of the Taser and we stand by our decision that it's a far better alternative than using a lethal weapon.**

**Yeah, only the taser is not being used in Ontario as an alternative to lethal weapons!

P.S. I don't know who "properly tested" your tasers, Mr. Kwinter, but the two tasers used on my brother were shown by an international testing laboratory to be 2.5 times and 84.5 times, respectively, more powerful than the manufacturer's specifications.

Taser official removed as adviser on stun gun study

May 12, 2005
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin researcher has removed Taser International's medical director as an adviser to a study of the safety of stun guns after critics said his involvement with the manufacturer tainted the research.
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Webster had described his two-year, $500,000 study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice as the first to look at the safety of stun guns independent of Taser, the Arizona-based company that makes the weapons.

But documents uncovered this week show Robert Stratbucker, an Omaha physician who is Taser's top medical officer, is one of four consultants to the study, which will look at how pigs' hearts react to electric shocks from the devices.

Reacting to the connection on Thursday, Webster told The Associated Press: "In view of this potential conflict of interest, I can make the statement that I have not received advice or paid Stratbucker and I will not use him in the future."

Stratbucker's studies are often cited by the company as evidence the weapons are a safe way to subdue unruly suspects. He has acknowledged receiving cash and stock options from Taser.

Tasers are used by more than 7,000 police agencies but blamed by Amnesty International in the deaths of more than 100 people in the United States and Canada since 1999.

USA TODAY first reported Stratbucker's link to Taser and the research Thursday. Stratbucker did not immediately return a phone call from the AP. (Related: Fairness of Taser study in question)

Webster said he listed the Taser official as a consultant to show he would have experts available for advice on the study, which is just getting underway.

"I'm acting independently and forming my own conclusions," said Webster, a professor emeritus of biomedical engineering.

In a statement, the Justice Department said the agency was aware of the Taser connection when granting the project. The department said Stratbucker had a small role that "would not influence the research goals, scientific measurement, data collection or conclusions."

In March, both Webster and a Taser spokesman told the AP the company had no ties to the research.

In his grant proposal, Webster proposed Stratbucker receive $18,000 in salary and travel expenses for his advice. Stratbucker's resume was included but did not mention his work for Taser, and Webster checked a box to deny any conflict of interest.

Amnesty International and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which calls the research cruel and unnecessary, called for an end to the study on Thursday.

"This is not independent and there's an appearance that there was an attempt to hide the conflict," said Edward Jackson, a spokesman for Amnesty International, which says more independent studies are needed to determine whether Tasers are safe.

Eric Sandgren, a UW-Madison professor who leads a committee overseeing animal research, had previously defended the study but said he was troubled by the revelations. He said removing Stratbucker was appropriate.

"I saw one of the strengths of this study as being that it is distanced from Taser," he said. "To the extent that this calls that into question, we have to address that as a university."

Fairness of Taser study in question

May 11, 2005
Kevin Johnson, USA Today

WASHINGTON — An adviser to a federally funded study concerning the safety of stun guns made by Taser International also is a paid consultant to Taser, the Justice Department acknowledges. The situation is raising questions about potential conflicts of interest in the $500,000 study, which is being done amid reports that dozens of people have died after being shocked with stun guns.
Robert Stratbucker, a physician from Omaha, is among four paid advisers to a two-year study that is being launched by John Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. Webster's application to the Justice Department for a research grant last fall cited Stratbucker as an adviser, but it did not mention that Stratbucker is a medical consultant to Taser, the nation's leading seller of stun guns.

Stratbucker has worked with Taser as the Arizona company has touted its stun guns — also known as Tasers — as non-lethal weapons that offer a safe way for police to subdue suspects. Taser, whose Web site lists Stratbucker as the company's medical director, has cited his research in promoting its stun guns.

About 7,000 of the nation's 16,000 police agencies have bought Tasers. But concerns about whether the weapons are safe have increased recently, as Amnesty International and The Arizona Republic have reported that more than 100 people have died since 1999 after being shocked with stun guns. The reports have led officials in Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin and elsewhere to launch inquiries into stun guns or to consider limits on when police can use them.

The Justice Department said in a statement to USA TODAY that Stratbucker's role in the Wisconsin study will be "small" and that it will "not influence the research goals, scientific measurement, data collection or conclusions." In an interview, Stratbucker rejected the notion that he has a conflict of interest. "I have never felt that I had any obligation ... to tailor the results of my research," he said. Separately, Webster said the study is an independent assessment of Tasers.

But critics of the study say Stratbucker's duel roles raise questions about the objectivity of Webster's work and about the Justice Department's vetting of grant applicants. "Dr. Stratbucker's involvement makes it clear who is really pulling the strings," said Mary Beth Sweetland, a vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Her group opposes the study's use of pigs to test the effects of Taser shocks. (Webster said the pigs are anesthetized during experiments and "feel no pain.") The results of the study "are a foregone conclusion," Sweetland said, making the research "cruel and pointless."

Stratbucker's presence is "a potential conflict of interest," said Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a think tank here that researches law enforcement issues and wants federal money to do its own stun-gun study. "We wouldn't do it."

The critics also cite Webster's written summary of his study that he filed with Justice. He said his premise was that "Tasers do not kill," and that he hoped "to find why these people are dying, and thus save lives."

N.B. police probe Taser death

May 7, 2005
CNEWS

N.B. death after taser use being probed

May 7, 2005
CP

MONCTON, N.B. -- The death of a 34-year-old New Brunswick man who collapsed after Mounties used a taser gun to subdue him is being investigated by RCMP.

Corporal Terry Kennedy, a spokesman for the RCMP, said yesterday that officers from Fredericton have taken over the investigation into the death of Kevin Geldart of Riverview.

Mr. Geldart died after Moncton RCMP officers shocked him with a taser, a high-voltage stun device, at a bar in Moncton late Thursday.

"When our members arrived, they were confronted by a man who was 6 foot 6 and about 300 pounds," Cpl. Kennedy said. "He was aggressive and violent toward the members. As a result, the taser was used to control the gentleman."

Cpl. Kennedy said officers handcuffed Mr. Geldart after he slumped to the floor. It was then that they realized he was unconscious and unresponsive.

An ambulance was called, but he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Cpl. Kennedy said Mr. Geldart had been missing from a local psychiatric unit.

The RCMP investigation will include an autopsy. "Obviously, we want to find out exactly the cause of death," Cpl. Kennedy said.

The taser is becoming the subject of intense public and police scrutiny as a result of the growing number of deaths associated with its use.

At an inquest this month in London, Ont., Dr. Jim Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, said that since 2003, nine Canadians had died shortly after being shot by a police taser.

But Dr. Cairns said that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause deaths. All nine people were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows the affected person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

"The evidence is overwhelming that [tasers have] saved many, many lives," Dr. Cairns told the Ontario inquest.

Tasers safe for police to use, coroner says

May 4, 2005
CP

London, Ont. -- Tasers are safe and should be used even more frequently by Ontario police, a provincial coroner has told the inquest into a London man's death.

Since 2003, nine Canadians have died shortly after being shot by a police taser, but Dr. Jim Cairns said yesterday that experts nationwide agree the powerful stun guns didn't cause any deaths -- including the death in May, 2004, of Peter Lamonday.

All nine people, Mr. Lamonday included, were determined to have died from the same cause: cocaine-induced excited delirium, which allows that person to feel no pain and exhibit superhuman strength before crashing.

Coroner Finds Man Didn't Die From TASER

May 3, 2005
The Globe and Mail

LONDON, ONT. - A man who died in police custody after being shot three times by a taser didn't die from the device, Ontario's deputy chief coroner told an inquest yesterday.

Had Peter Lamonday died in the parking lot where he absorbed the shots, the powerful stun gun could be considered responsible, Dr. James Cairns said.

But because the London man died some 50 minutes after taking on eight London police officers, the taser clearly didn't kill him, Dr. Cairns said on the opening day of the inquest into Mr. Lamonday's death May 14, 2004.

"This is the big question: Do tasers kill?" Dr. Cairns said of the popular weapons that temporarily stop attackers with a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity.

Last year the British Columbia Police Complaints Commissioner ordered an investigation into the case of Robert Bagnell, a Vancouver man, who died last June after being stunned by a taser.

The report has not been released and late last month Mr. Bagnell's family demanded answers. They complained they have learned nothing, including the official cause of his death.

In London, Dr. Cairns told the jury: "If you're going to die from an electric shock, you die when you get the electric shock, not minutes or hours later.

"Death cannot be attributed to the taser if there is an interval between use and death."

A postmortem has ruled that Mr. Lamonday died of cocaine-induced excited delirium -- during which a person can feel no pain and exhibit incredible strength, but eventually crash.

Earlier, coroner's counsel David Carruthers told the jury that Mr. Lamonday, whose manner was described as "paranoid" by witnesses who saw him at a bar, smashed his head through the glass door of a nearby ceramics business and appeared unaffected.

The inquest, which is mandatory because Mr. Lamonday died in police custody, continues today.