Another Death by Taser: Woman Says Officers' Action Killed Son
WIBW-TV
Wed June 22, 2005
Area: Kansas City
A Kansas City woman says Independence police caused the death of her teenage son.
Patricia Torrence says officers handled 17-year-old Michael Williams like an animal on June First while arresting him for shoplifting. She and Independence police differ on what happened before the youth fell unconscious.
Torrance was not at the scene, but she says her son was trying to say goodbye to his girlfriend when he broke away from police. She claims an officer kneed her son, choked him and then fired a Taser gun at him.
Police say an officer and an unnamed civilian tackled Williams when he ran toward a van carrying his friends, and that the youth went into convulsions and lost consciousness. He died June 12 after his family took him off life support.
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