Chicago Tribune - February 11, 2005
Tom Rybarczyk and David Heinzmann, Tribune staff reporters.

The medical examiner's office had not reported a cause of death late Thursday, and police would not provide the man's name pending notification of his family.

Earlier this week, a 14-year-old ward of the state went into cardiac arrest after a Chicago police sergeant shot him with a stun gun.

The boy was taken off a ventilator Wednesday and is recovering.

After Thursday's incident, Police Supt. Philip Cline called for a temporary halt to plans to distribute more Tasers. He said, however, he would not discontinue use of the 200 Tasers the department has now.

Cline said he wanted to see the outcome of these investigations before buying additional stun guns.

"These two incidents have happened very close to each other and prompted me to ask questions" Cline said.

"We are asking everyone to avoid drawing any immediate conclusions or snap judgments."

Even with the cause of the man's death Thursday unknown, these two incidents thrust the Chicago Police Department into the national debate over the use of Taser stun guns, manufactured by Taser International Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz., and used by some 6,000 police agencies.

From coast to coast, there have been incidents in which people have died after being shocked by a stun gun, but medical examiners have rarely cited the Taser as a cause of death.

In a November report, Amnesty International said it found 74 Taser-related deaths since 2001 and concluded the devices were "contributing to widespread human rights abuses."

In the latest Chicago Taser case, police said the 54-year-old man Thursday refused to leave the hallway on the 26th floor of an apartment building in the 300 block of West Wellington Avenue. He had apparently been invited up to the apartment of two men who were later being questioned by police but had not been charged.

The 54-year-old man had served four years in an Illinois prison on drug charges, police said.

Belmont Area Police Cmdr. Michael Chasen said the man began threatening officers' lives, saying, "If you come near me, I will give you HIV."

An officer handcuffed one of the man's wrists, but the man then started swinging the handcuffs at the officers, Chasen said.

After three warnings, a sergeant fired a Taser at the man. Paramedics took the man to the ground floor, at which time they realized he was under distress, Chasen said.

The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:58 p.m.

Taser International's stock fell nearly 4 percent Thursday on the heels of a television report that revealed new details of an Air Force study that found multiple shocks from a Taser stun gun led to heart damage in pigs.

Officials from Taser International could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

The company has always maintained its stun guns are safe and a life-saving alternative to the use of handguns.

A number of police agencies across the nation have reported decreases in firearm use when officers have access to Tasers.

However, as in the case Monday with the 14-year-old in Chicago, questions have been raised in the past about the appropriateness of using Tasers on certain people.

Last year in Miami, a 6-year-old boy was shocked in a school office.

Also last year, a 75-year-old woman in Rock Hill, S.C., was shot with a stun gun in a nursing home.

In both cases, they had created disturbances that required police action. Neither the child nor the elderly woman died. But police departments in each case were later criticized and took either disciplinary action or refined their procedures.

After the incident Monday at the residential group home run by Uhlich Children's Advantage Network, Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris criticized the use of a stun gun and said he believed the boy was no longer violent and was sitting on a couch when police arrived. The American Civil Liberties Union also said the use of force seemed unjustified.

Police said the boy had been breaking windows in the home and had beaten three workers before lunging at an officer who responded to the disturbance.

The boy's guardian Thursday filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the city and an unnamed police officer. The police maintain the decision to use the stun gun was appropriate.

The two-count lawsuit alleges misconduct and negligence, charging the use of a stun gun on a minor was "improper and excessive force." The lawsuit also alleges that the use of the stun gun on a minor goes against the manufacturer's instructions and the Police Department's own regulations.

Chicago police have been using Tasers on a trial basis since April.

When a stun gun's trigger is pulled, two wires tipped with electrified barbs are shot a distance of more than 20 feet. Once the barbs hit their target, a strong electrical charge--up to 50,000 volts--courses through the wires, shocking the person and immobilizing them.

Police spokesman Patrick Camden said police have used stun guns 156 times since they began using the devices, resulting in 20 injuries, most "minor, puncture wounds or abrasions from" the barbs.

Tribune national correspondent Michael Martinez, staff reporter Rex W. Huppke and Tribune wire services contributed to this report.

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