Posted on 12/14/2009 10:54:14 AM PST by StolarStorm
A man died after being shot with a Taser during a confrontation Sunday night with Mason police officers, according to police.
Police said Douglas Boucher, 39, of Mason died at a local hospital after he was shot by the Taser following a disturbance around 11:15 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13 at the Speedway gas station, 711 Reading Road.
Two Mason police officers stopped at the Speedway at the corner of Tylersville and Reading Road for a drink when a clerk asked them to talk to Boucher, who was causing some kind of trouble, according to a report.
The two officers approached Boucher and asked him to go outside. Police say the officers used a Taser after the confrontation got physical, and one of the officers sustained a head injury.
Boucher stopped breathing after he was stunned, police said.
He was taken to West Chester Medical Center where he died. The police officer with the head injury was treated and released from Bethesda North Hospital.
Mason police have been using Tasers since 2007.
Boucher’s ex-wife Sheryl Olszewski described him as a good father.
The couple was married in 2001 just before their 8-year-old daughter was born. Olszewski said their 2005 divorce was amicable and her daughter will miss her dad terribly.
“Our daughter was his light and inspiration and they enjoyed their visits tremendously,” she said. “Today is a sad day for her.”
Boucher was a bass player and a member of the local band “Hellcat Alley.”
“He was a very passionate person — passionate about his daughter, his music, and living life fully,” she said.
Doyle Burke, the chief investigator for the Warren County Coroner’s Office, said Butler County will perform the autopsy because he died there. He said they likely won’t find the Taser actually killed him, rather a heart condition or possibly drugs, combined with the Taser shock will likely be the cause of death.
“If it is a result of a Taser, it’ll be the first one in history,” he said.
The manufacturers always point to correlation, but they never admit causation. Most autopsies would show correlations, but the actual cause is likely lost with the man.
God rest his soul.
Death by taser, becoming an all too often common occurrence in America by taser-happy cops.
Don't give Obama any ideas. "Death by Taser" will be looked on approvingly by the Dems working on health care reform.
Man dies after stunned with Taser
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Well I got stuned by a beeber once. But I didn’t die.
According to the story that should be head wounded taser happy cop. Tasers relace guns and night sticks because the chance of death/serious injury is lower. Much lower but not zero. Take away Tasers and what is a cop under assult going to do?
That's typically what the lawyer will use in the mega-millions civil case against the city. Common sense says "if he had not resisted arrest, and became physical with the police officers, he would not have been tazed...."
All the facts are not in here, but I get tired of blaming police and mega-million suits against TAXPAYERS to pay for someone's civil disobedience of lawful orders, or the law itself.
knock it off
Looks like some US cops are a little bit too “Taser happy”.
Don´t get me wrong a Taser can do a lot of good if (and this should be the only reason to use it) the police would only use it in situations where they would be forced to use their guns instead.
Also, there was a high profile case in Canada where a young Polish immigrant, who was acting confused & disorientated... after being surrounded by cops, he tried to bolt & was tasered & died within seconds. I call that murder in cold blood. There were 5 of them to one of him. He was just trying to visit his mother who lived in America. Obviously, the poor man had emotional problems.
This taser noinsense is getting out of hand.
Considering one of the cops was hurt, I would say his death was caused by his inability to control himself.
Why didn’t you help the man?
Getting tazered is an excellent heart test. I’m 56 though so I am going to try to avoid it. I’m gonna cooperate fully with the police unless I am ready to spend the rest of my life on the run because I shot and killed a “small town” brown shirt officer. I don’t plan on doing that.
Correction: He was just trying to visit his mother who lived in CANADA...he was killed inside an airport corridor, after having just traveled from Poland. There is a large citizen’s movement to have the officers tried for murder. I hope they succeed. BTW, the whole episode was caught on amateur video.
I don't like the idea of cops running around with these portable electric chairs because they're probably told they're safe to use, well obviously they're not.
Handcuffing is not as easy as you think, especially if the person is large, belligerent, mentally ill, or under the influence of narcotics. I know this from experience. TASERs are meant to prevent the use of unnecessary force to subdue a subject in order to effect a lawful arrest. The safety of the officers is paramount over that of a perpetrator, especially when one of the officers sustains a head injury. My recommendation, don’t “Monday Quarterback” the incident...you weren’t there.
I’m with you. Based on the experience I’ve had with cops these could have been “cops looking for a fight” and got one, or it could be “belligerent guy with a chip on his shoulder looking for a fight” and the cops were trying to be reasonable but he ramped it up. Or some mixture of both.
There is not enough info to know which.
I would suspect that the cops would be described as “good fathers” too.
It never pays to get belligerent with police officers.
Nobody wants to go to jail, but getting into a scuffle with the police is a no-win situation.
In this instance the guy did something to injure an officer, and seeking to get him under control, they used a taser.
It doesn’t matter if he was a good father or not. It doesn’t matter if he was a great co-worker. It doesn’t matter if he was citizen of the year. If he was trying to win a physical scuffle with the officers, he was going to be challenged. It escalated to the point where a taser was used. He could have submitted at any point, and didn’t.
So as sad as I am that the guy died, he didn’t even have to be tased. He in effect chose to be tased.
Officers cannot be expected to merely accept physical abuse, and walk away from a situation like this. The situation has to be resolved, and the officers are tasked with coming out on top.
If they weren’t, what use would they be to the community.
If people could walk over them at will, there would be perpetual chaos.
Next time I'm in TJ.....
I'll do just that!
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