Posted on 06/21/2012 6:45:16 PM PDT by digger48
Family members outraged by incident, threaten lawsuit
PERU — At least one Peru police officer is on administrative leave after a 64-year-old nursing home resident with advanced-stage Alzheimer’s was Tased three times. Police said he wouldn’t obey their commands.
Three Peru officers and a Dukes EMS unit arrived at Miller’s Merry Manor Nursing Home just before 6 a.m. Sunday after staff reported resident James Howard was combative and struck several employees.
According to police reports, Officers Gregory Martin and Jeremy Brindle entered Howard’s room in the locked-down Alzheimer’s unit and told him to enter the ambulance.
When Howard did not respond to commands, Martin unholstered his Taser and told him he would be Tased if he didn’t comply.
Brindle attempted to gain control of Howard’s arms to restrain him, and a struggle ensued. When Howard turned towards Brindle, Martin then Tased him, which caused Howard to drop to the floor.
Howard was then Tased by Martin two more times while on the ground after ordering him multiple times to roll onto his stomach. Police said Howard resisted constraint and attempted to fight them while on the floor.
Brindle then handcuffed Howard, which left a large, bloody gash on his wrist and escorted him to Duke’s Memorial Hospital. Officers said he was combative in the ambulance until his wife arrived at the hospital and calmed him down.
Howard’s wife, Virginia, called the incident “sadistic” and said she plans to press charges against the officers.
She said her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 13 years ago and doesn’t understand the simplest directions or commands like “sit down or pick up a book.”
“He’s a child trapped in an adult’s body,” she said. “He’s not even at a 2-year-old’s level.”
When Virginia found out James had been Tased by police, she said she was physically ill in the hospital parking lot.
“Now, he’s afraid when too many people are around,” she said. “He thinks they’re going to hurt him ... You can see it on his face. He’s scared.”
Virginia said she also places blame on the nursing home staff, which didn’t intervene when police Tased James.
“They didn’t protect him,” she said. “Nobody stopped it. Everybody witnessed it, but nobody stopped it.”
Police announced Monday they have launched an internal investigation, but would not comment about the incident or the investigation.
Police Chief Steve Hoover said no time frame has been set on the investigation, noting several people need to be interviewed regarding the incident.
“I would just ask from the citizens of Peru to be patient and allow us to do a thorough investigation into the matter,” he said Monday. “We assure you that we are taking this seriously, but it will take some time to do the investigation correctly.”
The sunofabitch must have been trained in the U.S.
And we will find that we acted according to standard policies and procedures where we taze the hell out of old people even if they don't know what they're doing and are totally out of it. Plus pooping in their diapers.
First, we have students on a school bus, verbally abusing and bullying an elderly bus monitor. Now, we have cops tazering Alzheimer’s patients. WHAT HAS THIS COUNTRY TURNED INTO?
My father has alzheimers disease. I understand perfectly what the police did, and why.
An adult male can be strong, even if elderly. The nursing home’s staff did exactly what I would have expected if they found a patient out of control: they called the police.
If Virginia Howard doesn’t like it, let here keep him at home and care for him herself.
My dad is in a home because I cannot care for him like they can, and they’re better equipped and more knowledgable about alzheimers than I am.
As for tazing Mr.Howard, as long as he hasn’t died, I do not see that his family has a case for a lawsuit.
This actually occurred in Peru, INDIANA, part of the North American Communist Union, formerly known as the USA/s;)
It tripped me up also when I read the title....
Yeah - about 0 seconds. Fire the POS police officers and then chain them to a pole in a backyard and let family members have a go at them.
“This actually occurred in Peru, INDIANA,”
OOPS!
(red faced)
Let’s see if you feel this same way when it happens to your Dad.
My dad is 6’-4” tall and if angered would be able to kill.
Does that answer your question?
I’ve work in nursing homes and I can say that at times an alzheimer patient can be dangerous. That said I can also say I’ve never felt the need to call the police. The staff needs to be better trained. When I worked, we would sometimes only have 3-4 staff members at hand. We had several residents that would become physically violent when agitated. The key is to avoid getting them agitated in the first place.
Wow this is just sad. Very sad.
my point is, he’s still your Dad. My Grandmother was 6 foot and 200 hundred pounds and packed a hell of a punch.
The Nursing HOME staff are supposed to be able bodied and TRAINED to take care of a patient in a LOCK DOWN area.
Tazing the elderly gentleman is NOT acceptable.
I don’t give a rats ass what you say.
Sorry....forgot to add where this was.
I just don’t know what to say.... your post was just damned astounding!
Yes, I understand what you’re both saying.
I happen to believe that employee safety is more important than the “feelings” of a patient’s wife.
Tazering doesn’t kill unless other factors are involved. The man was tazed and is fine. So what! It’s not like he was pistol-whipped.
If she doesn’t like what happened, then she can take her husband home and care for him herself.
I have to wonder what we did before tasers.
Before tazers, the police used billy clubs.
You’re a fool to think tazing doesn’t kill.
You’re being an idiot on this thread. Go thump on your kids for a while.
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