Taser Trouble
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n January 15th, 2005 I had my sister call the police when we discovered a stranger walking around on my parent's shed roof. I called the cops after asking the man how he was doing and received the reply, "Not too good, I haven't had my meth for five days." He seed agitated and walked a fence line to our neighbor's home where he continued to walk around.
My sister and I went into the house until the police arrived and I told the first officer that there was a man walking on the roofs, and that he had indicated that he hadn't had his meth for five days.
Shortly after I told the police officer this, we spotted the man on our neighbor’s roof he walked around and then made a leap from one house to another that showed that his personal safety was not on his mind. The police realized he was going to get hurt and decided to move in closer. By this time police officers had surrounded the houses the man was "walking on" and had flashed him with their flashlights so he seemed to know they were there. The man became agitated and began to move back to my parent’s roof along a fence and the police officers seemed to loose sight of him for a moment. When he got up on my parents roof for the second time, the cops tried to talk to him and he became very agitated, walked around faster and then moved toward the end of the roof and jumped into my parent’s back yard.
When the police moved in closer, I had stayed away, but when the man jumped into the yard, I moved into another section of the yard because it sounded like he was getting away. I was also concerned that the cops might be attacked since I saw only one 2 of them go into the area where the man had jumped and I knew that my parents backyard is full of potentially dangerous objects that a crazy person could use against the officers.
Even though I moved closer to where they were trying to subdue the suspect, I could not see them because my view was obscured by another small shed. I guessed that the suspect had jumped a fence and was moving away from the sounds I heard, so I moved to a position where I thought I could safely see what was happening.
Just as I did so, two officers from the opposite side saw me and obviously thought I was the suspect as they told me to put my arms into the air. I was partially blinded by their flashlight, but I knew the police had a weapon pointed at me because I remember seeing the yellow of the taser end. I said something to the effect of, "no! I'm not the guy you're looking for!" and turned away while keeping my hands in the air. I thought I had been told to turn around, but the officer later told me that he had not told me to do so. I feel like I turned because I felt threatened, but in any event, I turned and in the same moment I was struck by the stun gun in the back and lower right hip.
I received a 5 second pulse and it was immediately evident that I was not the suspect. I did not suffer any lasting injuries, but there was very little reason the officer to fire the weapon and from what I've read on your website, this action seems to have carried significant risk that could have been avoided.