Reuters report finds more than 1000 deaths by Taser--disproportionally killing the most vulnerable.

[pnwmom]

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-taser-911/

A 911 plea for help, a Taser shot, a death - and the mounting toll of stun guns

Part 1: In the most detailed study ever of fatalities and litigation involving police use of stun guns, Reuters finds more than 150 autopsy reports citing Tasers as a cause or contributor to deaths across America. Behind the fatalities is a sobering reality: Many who die are among society’s vulnerable – unarmed, in psychological distress and seeking help.

By PETER EISLER, JASON SZEP, TIM REID and GRANT SMITH Filed Aug. 22, 2017, 11 a.m. GMT

ONTARIO, California – As her husband stalked around the back yard, upending chairs and screaming about demons, Nancy Schrock knew he was unraveling fast. She dialed the police.

“He needs to be in the hospital,” she told a 911 dispatcher. It was 10:24 p.m. on a Thursday in June 2012. “He’s really, really, really bad.”

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Reuters documented 1,005 incidents in the United States in which people died after police stunned them with Tasers, nearly all since the early 2000s – the most thorough accounting to date of fatal encounters involving the paralyzing stun guns.

Many of the casualties are among society's vulnerable. A quarter of the people who died, like Schrock, were suffering from a mental health breakdown or neurological disorder. In nine of every 10 incidents, the deceased was unarmed. More than 100 of the fatal encounters began with a 911 call for help during a medical emergency.

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