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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.
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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.
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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 need 2 Kingston Tickets, please help.
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clearlyentranced Wrote:I agree drunk Lance.
Maybe on a Friday.
I need 2 Kingston Tickets, please help.
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Nah....she's 56 in a wheelchair....call backups, ambush her, whatever.....kinda makes the cops look like they're trigger happy also.
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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....
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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.
Jeff
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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.
