87-year-old woman dies after standoff with deputies, who shoot her with a stun gun

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2010/07/87-year-old_woman_dies_after_s.html

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BORING – For years, 87-year-old Phyllis A. Owens was known around her mobile home park as someone who loved cats and enjoyed Bible study. But on Thursday afternoon, Owens picked up a gun, threatened a park manager and others and got into a confrontation with police that ended in her death.

Owens died after taking a hit from a deputy's stun gun. At the time, she was reaching to again pick up a handgun she had put down earlier during tense negotiations with Clackamas County sheriff's deputies.

Dr. Larry Lewman, deputy state medical examiner, said an autopsy revealed that Owens suffered from heart disease and had a pacemaker. He said he needed more information before he could say what roles the heart disease, the pacemaker and the stun gun may have played in her death.

"But let me put it this way: A healthy person would not have died from this," Lewman said.

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This is a really sad story.

that seems quite reasonable and is the minimal use of force choice.

Her picking up a gun in a confrontation with police led to her death.

The woman went for the handgun, and police tried to use something less deadly than guns. It obviously failed, but I see little choice.