Bible-toting teen dies after cops stun-gun him

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/118718,CST-NWS-stun01.article

JERSEYVILLE, Ill. -- A teenager carrying a Bible and shouting ''I want Jesus'' was shot twice with a police stun gun and later died at a St. Louis hospital, authorities said Tuesday.

Police in Jerseyville, a city of 8,000 about 40 miles north of St. Louis, said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and continued yelling, ''I want Jesus.''

Police tried to calm the teen, but Holyfield became combative, according to a police statement.

Officers fired the stun gun at him after he ignored their warnings, then fired again when he continued struggling, police said.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Sounds like he found Jesus n/t

[saigon68]

2. Nope they just killed him

Maybe some day Jesus "daddy" will lecture these killers.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Joseph?

[saigon68]

9. Nope his "OTHER" daddy -- GOD hisself (sorry for the dialect)

LOL

[HereSince1628]

4. Remember when the men in the white coats would show up on

the three stooges to put one of them in a padded truck? No more.

Now it's more important to look tough than it is to look compassionate, and we've got no patience for the mentally ill who don't follow authority. They are weirdo's, and anything that ain't normal is a threat.

[Hav]

5. .

I'm wondering how much more one is inclined to use a weapon when it's described as a non-fatal weapon. But I'm sure that there were better ways to deal with this young person.

Further, does the shock need to be that severe? It doesn't need that much to immobilize someone or to make someone lose control of his muscles with electric shocks.

[slaveplanet]

6. ''excited delirium.''

Dr. Phillip Burch -- St. Louis' deputy chief medical examiner -- suggested the boy might have died from ''excited delirium.''

That highly active mental state could be brought on by mental illness or drugs. ''If it was excited delirium, he could have dropped dead,'' without police using the stun gun, Burch said.
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Yep, he got excited and just dropped dead...That's the ticket

[sendero]

7. I hope there were..

... witnesses, or even better video. The police use the goddamn tazer like it was a toy.

[NorthernSpy]

8. meanwhile in Maine, a guy dressed as Osama bin Laden...

... carrying what turned out to be mock hand-grenades and a fake assault rifle was successfully taken into custody without mishap. Even after he failed to drop his ersatz weaponry when told to.

Some police departments are trigger-happier than others, I guess.

Notice that this story is nicely decorated with everyone's favorite weasel-word for such occasions: "combative". Calling the kid "combative" allows one to create the impression that the boy was attacking people, without actually saying any such thing forthrightly.

[Cetacea]

10. shoot the mentally ill

I've seen this scenario played out too many times. A person in obvious breakdown mode shot to death by police. (to their credit, many police are learning how to deal with upset people)

One incident that I will never forget is when police shot a Brooklyn Hassidic Jew forty-four times because he was banging a hammer on the pavement on his own property. He was yelling and making threating gestures with his hammer. If anything, one shot to the leg would have subdued him.
But forty-four? And his struggle with his illness was well-known in the community.
Thousands took to the streets that night in vigil.