Replies

Of course she didn’t forsee that consequence of her actions. She clearly did not intend to fall and hit her head and be in a coma and brain dead...she intended to escape.

She was breaking the law while so doing. She had evaded arrest for months and was now ready to get out and do it some more...already having shown she was a danger to others around her.

The policeman used non-lethal force to stop her.

Her hitting her head was a tragedy, but it was not the police officers fault.

You may have served, and if you did in combat or anywhere where you might have to physically subdue an enemy or criminal, then you know there is significant additional danger in so doing.

To wrestle this girl down on the run opens up the possibility that he could be injured while so doing, that she could perhaps somehow get his gun out of the holster during the scuffle, etc., etc.

I addition, as much bigger as he was than she, he could easily have injured her in that scuffle as well.

The taser was the much less dangerous option at the time and he used it.

I will not second guess him. I was not there.

I will not pass judgement on him, and get into some kind of high school name calling on him. Again, I was not there.

You do not know his record and neither do I. You do not know his attitude, and neither do I.

It’s easy to pass judgement...particularly with a video to make a snap judgement, but in my experience it is rarely advisable, even with the video.

If he is tried civilly, a jury will decide, as it should what his civil level of culpability is. Butt they will see a WHOLE lot more evidence than we are seeing.

Yes, I have been on FR, and for a long time (14 years) long enough to know exactly who was responsible for this...and it was not the LEO. He did his job and his duty with a criminal who was now felony escape.

It was a tragedy she fell as she did...but it was a tragedy of her own making...after several very bad choices on her part, which she made (and she made each and every one of them) that led her there.

Jeff, you appear to be a thoughtful person. Have you considered that maybe she was running for her life from a lazy taser-happy cop, who she may have thought was about to taser her to death? The taser option appears to be the first and only option in this case. The cop couldn’t have known a dash cam video was catching his actions on tape, therefore his carelessness. Also, the girl may have been allowed to “escape,” if only temporarily, or she may have even been scared into running. Tasers are lethal in and of themselves, no doubt about it.

A taser shot can cause ventricular fibrillation 3 out of one hundred times, depending on the electrical cycle of the heart at the time of the application of the jolt.

After viewing the video, seeing the size differential, noting that the woman was handcuffed and reading what little information there is in the article, I'm inclined to give the officer a little less latitude than you. The risk of her actually escaping would seem to be small. No question the woman made some poor decisions that ended in her losing her life. Perhaps she was under the influence of something. I think the officer could also have made a better decision. I can't say he was responsible for her death. I would say perhaps her death could have been avoided if he had responded differently. Having a head caved in on the pavement is something I would like to see for more heinous crimes than what she is apparently guilty of.