2 stories, Pg5 Local Paper - 'Teen dies after shock from Taser' & 'Trooper kills man who sprays him'

www.newsobserver.com

Saturday March 22, 2008 page 5 News Briefs

'Teen dies after shock from Taser'

17 year old son(employee) told his mother he had stolen Hot Pockets from the grocery store where he worked and feared disciplinary action. His mother told him to go back to the grocery store to face what happened. Police officers were called to the grocery store, saw him throw something at a store manager, they described him as agitated, refused their commands and advanced toward an officer. He was tasered and died.


'Trooper kills man who sprays him'

Officer pulled over pickup truck for swerving. Officer patted down 30 yr old man and found a pill bottle containing 'a white substance.' Man fled and officer pursued and the 2 struggled. Man grabbed officer's pepper spray and sprayed the officer. Officer pulled his gun and shot man twice in upper torso killing him. 'White substance' has not yet been identified.


Does anyone else find both of these deaths disturbing?

Does anyone else find it disturbing that these stories landed on page 5 of the local paper, under a News Briefs section with only a couple of paragraphs for each?

The guy who was shot after fighting the officer and spraying him with the officer's own pepper spray doesn't. He was a dumbass.

The second story doesn't indicate where the shooting happened — and I wouldn't have run it without that information — but the victim was from Conover, about 150 miles from Raleigh. That's why the stories aren't more prominent.

But, yeah — it's disturbing, particularly the first one.

These people are no longer Peace Officers, they are Death Squads.

Death squads, really? Just a little over the top don't you think. I bet you think all muslims are terrorists too.

David

NT

Tasers are used when deadly force isn't called for. That didn't work out in this case, but clearly killing him was not their intent. If it was they would have shot him in the head several times.

David

The person he stopped was not under arrest when he tried to flee, did not commit a felony in the presence of the officer by swerving before the stop, and did not use deadly force or a weapon with the intent to inflict serious bodily injury upon the officer(if you believe the law enforcement description of the pepper spray they use).

And yet the officer used a deadly weapon, firing 2 shots into the upper torso of the man killing him.

We certainly won't hear the dead man's version of events, but it sounds like he was trying to flee and not attack the officer.

My guess is the argument will be made that he was attempting to gain control of the injured officers weapon. It will be hard to prove this is untrue considering the suspect is dead. I have treated two severely injured conscious officers and was still nervous when I took control of their firearms, even just briefly, until I could hand them off to another officer.

David