Tasers: A Non-Lethal Alternative?
KLAS-TV
Wed July 6, 2005
Area: Las Vegas
In the last 18 months, three Las Vegas men have died after Metro officers used tasers on them. Tasers are promoted as being "non-lethal" ways to subdue suspects. So why are people dying?
Tasers crackle with power -- 50,000 volts. They're designed to inflict pain. They're not supposed to kill. Sanford Tucker, a victim's father, said, "We had to wash this room down from the blood that was here and I found his teeth on the floor." Sanford Tucker believes tasers can kill.
On Aug. 2, 2004, Sanford Tucker was out of the country. His two roommates were home that night. One of them was his son, Keith. Sanford's roommate called 911, saying Keith was yelling and throwing things.
Two Metro officers entered the house with tasers. Tucker was shocked four times and died. Sanford Tucker said, "I want justice to be done. I really do. It has to be."
Metro's tasers are made by Arizona-based Taser International. Their website touts them as non-lethal. The company denied six requests from Eyewitness News for a sit down interview about their product.
In an e-mail the company says, "There are medical experts who dispute the few cases where a taser device has been cited as a contributing factor to an in custody death."
Metro Officer Marcus Martin, said, "As soon as the darts strike you it is immediate. You could call it pain in one sense, but it's almost beyond pain. I can't describe it."
Officer Martin is a taser trainer with Metro Police. He's been hit 12 times. He says in an overwhelming majority of cases, Metro officers use tasers to subdue out of control subjects with no harmful after-effect.
"How do we bring these situations under control with less than lethal force? Quite frankly the taser is an excellent tool for that -- it just is," Officer Martin told Eyewitness News.
Metro statistics show officers used tasers 579 times in 2004, with two deaths as a result. But do tasers kill? The answer is as controversial as the question.
Michael Murphy said, "Is taser a part of death or is taser causing death? We've been very clear to say that taser is not causing death but that it has been a factor in some deaths."
Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy knows the answer is confusing. He believes taser use can inflame other medical conditions, which cause death but that taser use by itself is not fatal.
"We're talking about individuals that are in an excited state that often times we're seeing elevated temperatures as a body core temperature as a result of some type of substance abuse," Murphy said.
Those elevated temperatures mean the body needs more oxygen to survive. But a taser hit can disrupt breathing, triggering a physical breakdown even death.
Eyewitness News asked Sanford Tucker if his son Keith was on drugs when he died. He replied, "Not as far as I know. Not as far as I know."
The coroner's official report says Keith Tucker had cocaine and high levels of a painkiller in his system, which weakened his heart leading to cardiac arrest after he was hit by the tasers.
In Coroner Mike Murphy's mind, it was drugs, not a taser, that did Keith Tucker in. "We definitely can not say tasers are causing deaths," he stated.
Just last month, Russell Walker died after he was hit by a taser three times during a disturbing the peace call on Fremont Street.
Friday, July 8, a coroner's inquest into the death will begin to determine if the taser use in that case was justified or not.
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