Posted on 06/29/2005 6:27:10 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Woman shot with Taser dies after being arrested
By Deanna Boyd
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH - Police are investigating the death of a 35-year-old woman who stopped breathing while being booked into the Fort Worth Jail on Friday evening about an hour after she was shot with a Taser gun after, police say, she resisted arrest.
Carolyn Daniels was pronounced dead at 7:39 p.m. Friday at Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital about 90 minutes after her encounter with Fort Worth police.
"According to initial accounts, the suspect was exhibiting signs of perhaps being on some type of drug other than alcohol, but we'll have to await the toxicology from the Medical Examiner's Office to see if that was a factor and in any manner contributed to her death," said Lt. Dean Sullivan, police spokesman.
As of Tuesday, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office had not ruled on the cause or manner of Daniels' death.
Daniels, who had numerous convictions for prostitution, was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. Friday on suspicion of being publicly intoxicated on a substance other than alcohol.
According to a police report, officer R.A. Elston was on routine patrol at 6:08 p.m. Friday when Daniels approached his car in the 1100 block of East Allen Avenue and told him, "They are after me."
Unable to say who was after her, Daniels was asked to stand on the sidewalk so she would not be struck by traffic. After Elston pulled his patrol car to the curb, Daniels attempted to open both the front and rear passenger doors as if trying to enter the car.
According to the report, Elston noticed that Daniels was not making sense and suspected that she was on drugs. Elston asked Daniels for identification, which she said was in her purse.
When Elston opened the purse, he saw a crack pipe inside, the report states.
Elston tried to arrest Daniels on suspicion of public intoxication, but she began to "actively resist" as he tried to handcuff her, the report states.
After handcuffing her, Elston tried to get her into his patrol car, but she kicked at him. He tried to restrain her legs but couldn't, the report states.
When Daniels continued to resist, Elston used a Taser cartridge on her. It shoots two metal probes into the clothing or skin, delivering a temporarily incapacitating 50,000-volt electrical shock.
After being shocked for the weapon's programmed five seconds, Daniels continued to resist, spitting blood at a backup officer who tried to help restrain Daniels, the report states.
After Elston shot Daniels with a Taser for another five seconds, she followed instructions, the report states.
Sullivan said Daniels was taken to the Fort Worth Jail to be held pending arraignment and transfer to the Mansfield Jail. Daniels had to be helped out of the car by Fort Wort Jail staff, Sullivan said.
"Shortly after going into jail and being searched, she was no longer responding to jail personnel's inquiries, and they noticed she wasn't breathing," Sullivan said.
He said that medical help was immediately summoned and that Daniels was taken to the hospital.
Sullivan said an internal investigation will examine whether Elston violated department policy in using the Taser.
"We treat everyone of these critical police-incident investigations seriously," Sullivan said. "We look for them to ensure all of our policies, practices and procedures were adhered to in the best interest of officer safety and more importantly, the citizens we serve."
Although there are exceptions, department policy generally prohibits officers from using a Taser on handcuffed suspects.
A suspect shot with a Taser before being restrained can be shocked again if the probes are still in place. In addition, an officer can apply Tasers directly to handcuffed suspects, the policy says.
As is routine, Sullivan said, a report from the investigation will be forwarded to a Tarrant County grand jury for review.
A better title might be "Crackhead stoned on crack dies from crack while in custody."
It's probably Meth.
If it's a "Under the influence of substance other than alcohol", that means the officers could smell it.. My bet is Meth, and yes, that'll kill ya!
If she was really hammered, the Tazer put her over the top. The situation has cleaned itself.
Yeah, if she was doing drugs, then she deserved to die....
Suicide.
Druggie Dies! News at 11 !!
On drugs or not she went to the cop for help because she thought she was in danger, real or imagined doesn't matter IMO.Arresting her because he saw a crack pipe she felt betrayed evidently.IMO arresting drug addicts doesn't help them, just let them be and they will eventually overdose anyway. I am tired of taxpayer dollars funding dopeheads by giving them three meals and a cot while in jail.
Some years ago, I knew someone who assaulted an officer in a manner which involved a transmission of potentially infected blood. He "died in the best of health," as they say, the very next day. Ever since, I've tended to think it is bad luck to make a cop worry about AIDS.
I agree
If you can't take the ZAP, don't pull any crap.
Semper Fi
Cleaning the shallow end of the pool.
A better title might be "Crackhead stoned on crack dies from crack while in custody."
How about this one.
"Chicken ass cops cant control stoner so resorts to legal torture resulting in death”
Or maybe.
“Girly man cant handle the job, resorts to legal torture, 1 dead.”
But my favorite is this.
Candy ass cop who flunked high school wrestling, couldn’t handle a combative arrest, resorted to legal torture, 1 dead, faked autopsy report coming shortly.
But then the due process clause is as dead as the rest of the constitution so who cares. Lacking any training in how to physically control combative people it’s much easier to just zap ‘em to death. Why wait for a judge and jury to even decide if they are stoned let alone deserving of death by torture.
Am I the only one who remembers a time when fighting a cop resulted in a night stick in the ribs and a few bruises but we all healed up after the fact?
(2) Being tasered is not "torture" anymore than your nostalgic nightsticking was torture.
(3) Cops are pretty good at determining if someone is on crack or not.
(4) Statistically speaking, one is much more likely to die from a crack habit than from a Tasering. Teh cause of death is not yet determined, but the facts will probably show that if she was not in the habit of smoking crack she'd be alive today.
Police stations had a mark on the wall at 6ft
If you stood there and did not measure up...you simply could not be a cop..
Nowadays affirmative action, equal rights, sexual preference are the new order of who gets in and who does not..
It's bascially a quality control issue...and the government forcing departments to take candidates it probably would rather not...at least until the time when the new order takes over management...and then tends to make sure only it's like kind gets hired..
The superior is cast aside for the inferior...it's all PC now.
Like putting women in combat
imo
She was handcuffed. I don't get how he couldn't control her.
Good thing he has a taser I guess. Maybe he would have shot her. Before tasers, what would this cop have done?
Nearly every law enforcement office across the nation has adopted a policy of not arresting illegal aliens when they seek help (even if there is evidence of illegal activity), because they do not want the illegal community to fear calling them for protection. Yet, if you are an American citizen, you are not given this same courtesy.
Why do illegal aliens have a right to protection even if they are criminals, but Americans do not?
A cry for help should be treated the same whether it be in English or Spanish. If illegal aliens are given protection from prosecution when seeking help through law enforcement, so should Americans citizens!
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