Friday, September 26, 2008

New York Police taser 35 year old mentally handicapped to death

From Democracy Now!: Mentally Handicapped Man Falls to Death After Police Tasering

And here in New York, police are admitting at least partial fault in the death of a mentally handicapped man who fell from a building after he was tasered. Thirty-five-year-old Inman Morales was standing naked on a ledge when police confronted him to try to bring him down. Police say they had called for an inflatable bag to break Morales’s fall. But it had not arrived before an officer struck him with the taser weapon, sending him plunging to his death. [...]
More from the New York Daily News: NYPD investigates two officers in Taser death [of] Brooklyn man
Instead of waiting for backup to arrive with an airbag that would have broken his fall, "an [Emergency Service Unit] lieutenant directed another ESU officer on the sidewalk to employ a [taser] against Morales, who fell to the sidewalk, striking his head," Browne said.

Morales, 35, fell 10 feet and landed headfirst on the pavement. He was declared dead at Kings County Hospital.

"It just wasn't a smart move. When you Taser someone, they drop like a stone. No muscle control. Under regular circumstances, the (suspect) could have jumped himself and been OK," a police source said.
Indeed, not a smart move. Hell, this NY police officer is smarter than I thought.

"He froze and pitched forward," witness Ernestine Croom said. "They didn't put out a mattress or net or anything."

"That's a human being. You just let the man fall and kill himself?" said Robin Overton, 45, who works nearby. "I thought the cops were here to help him."

Inman Morales, dead at 35.

LINKS
- Democracy Now! Mentally Handicapped Man Falls to Death After Police Tasering
- New York Daily News: NYPD investigates two officers in Taser death [of] Brooklyn man.

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