While an incident involving a man who died after being shot by Fayetteville police with a Taser in August remains under investigation, another man was hospitalized Wednesday morning after he was stunned with a Taser.
In August, Fayetteville police used a Taser X26 on a 56-year-old man, but after being stunned, the man collapsed. The incident is still being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation in order to determine if excessive use of force, a defect with the Taser or some other factor could have contributed to causing the man to suffer a wrongful death. An autopsy did reveal that the man had a significant amount of cocaine in his system when he was stunned.
After the August incident, the Fayetteville police department was banned from using the devices. The devices were then tested in order to determine if the stun guns were defective, which could have caused the products to not work properly. The manufacturer only discovered five devices that were not working properly because the stun guns were not giving off a strong enough charge. Once the devices were inspected, officers were able to continue using the weapons in October.
However, the police department’s use of the weapons and the safety of the devices may be questioned again after another individual was injured this week when police used a Taser during an attempt to arrest the man. The incident occurred Wednesday shortly after 4 a.m. at a Greyhound bus station.
According to reports, Fayetteville police shot the man with a Taser after the man allegedly tried to resist officers. Police reported that the Taser appeared to have little effect on the man, but other reports indicated that the man may have gone into cardiac arrest. As of Wednesday afternoon, the man remained in critical condition at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
The department reported that its Internal Affairs division will investigate the incident. The officers involved have been put on desk duty.
Source: The Fayetteville Observer, “Fayetteville police officers on desk duty; man hospitalized after being injured while resisting arrest,” Nancy McCleary, Dec. 28, 2011