GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) - A woman in a wheelchair who swung knives and a hammer at relatives and police died after being shocked by a stun gun, officials said.
Police tried to talk Emily Marie Delafield, 56, into dropping the weapons before they used the Taser to subdue her Monday, Police Chief Robert Musco said. Delafield lost consciousness after the electric jolt and later died at Orange Park Medical Center.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating and an autopsy will be conducted to pinpoint the cause of death.
The two officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which is standard procedure.
Tasers deliver a 50,000-volt jolt through two barbed darts that can penetrate clothing. About 7,000 of the 18,000 police agencies in the United States had them last year, and they were used by police more than 70,000 times.
They had to use stun guns to restrain a 56 yr old woman in a wheelchair?
All right then. I suppose it wouldn't have been possible for one of them to get behind her and hold her arms down. That would have been out of the question. I guess.
Quote:A woman in a wheelchair who swung knives and a hammer at relatives and police
I would not rusk injury, would you? If the officers did not have a stun gun then they would have to shoot her. They used the level of force nessary.
Not to be off-topic but another recent headline made me do a double take:
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mrlayance Wrote:Quote:A woman in a wheelchair who swung knives and a hammer at relatives and police
I would not rusk injury, would you? If the officers did not have a stun gun then they would have to shoot her. They used the level of force nessary.
I agree drunk Lance. If someone were swinging a knife at me, wheelchair or not..I'd pull the taser out. What can they do? Tackle her? Run away? Put the brakes on her chair?
clearlyentranced Wrote:mrlayance Wrote:Quote:A woman in a wheelchair who swung knives and a hammer at relatives and police
I would not rusk injury, would you? If the officers did not have a stun gun then they would have to shoot her. They used the level of force nessary.
I agree drunk Lance.
drunk lance :thumb: classic
Corby Wrote:Not to be off-topic but another recent headline made me do a double take:
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I don't generally laugh at the misfortune of others, but that is just so damn ridiculous. It's such a shame that the 'wallet inspector' was brought to pop-culture via The Simpsons, because I would have to believe that there would be an equal success rate.
clearlyentranced Wrote:I agree drunk Lance.
Maybe on a Friday.
Nah....she's 56 in a wheelchair....call backups, ambush her, whatever.....kinda makes the cops look like they're trigger happy also.
tth_fan Wrote:Nah....she's 56 in a wheelchair....call backups, ambush her, whatever.....kinda makes the cops look like they're trigger happy also.
thats true but im just thinking..what if that was my granny??...i really dont think she was that mean tho.....lmao
There have been a ton of incidents where people have died after being shocked by Tasers. They're not "non-lethal," they're "less lethal."
Unfortunately, police forces tend to train their officers as if Tasers are non-lethal.
In this situation, I dunno, I wasn't there. But she ain't around anymore to dispute the police account of events leading up to her death....
brown_eyed_girl Wrote:tth_fan Wrote:Nah....she's 56 in a wheelchair....call backups, ambush her, whatever.....kinda makes the cops look like they're trigger happy also.
thats true but im just thinking..what if that was my granny??...i really dont think she was that mean tho.....lmao
Ya, I agree. I'm saying they should have done everything to restrain this woman so they didn't have to tase her....that's someone's mother, grand-mamman, etc. I think they could have handled it better...
skippy the wonder dog Wrote:But she ain't around anymore to dispute the police account of events leading up to her death....
But her family is. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
mrlayance Wrote:Quote:A woman in a wheelchair who swung knives and a hammer at relatives and police
I would not rusk injury, would you? If the officers did not have a stun gun then they would have to shoot her. They used the level of force nessary.
If I was a police officer facing a 56 yr old woman in a wheelchair? Yeah, I'd probably risk a minor injury to avoid tasering her. But then, I'm a humanitarian.
I'm just noticing this assertion that the only other alternative would have been to shoot her.
Not so.
In fact, police could not justify shooting someone confined to a wheelchair, even if they were waving a machete and threatening to kill someone with it. Not unless a potential victim was in reach.
Resisting arrest, even by offering violence, is not cause to get out the sidearm. You need an immediate threat to life for that.
It's difficult to make a case that someone in a wheelchair represents an immediate threat to the lives of police or the public, even if she does have a knife.