January 7, 2010

Taser Death: Delano Smith (Elkhart, IN)

A young 21-year old man was making loud noises, screaming and trashing his apartment yesterday morning in Elkhart, Indiana. His apartment had broken windows, mirrors, furniture and holes in the walls. It was obvious that the young man was upset about something.

Instead of offering the young man help ... unidentified Elkhart police officers decided to fire 50,000 volts of electricity from their taser guns SEVERAL TIMES.

Now, 21-year old Delano Smith will never be able to tell us what upset him so much. He's dead.

This is the 60th taser-related death in America over the past year. It appears that the Elkhart police officers weren't aware of the recent federal court ruling that placed limits on the use of taser guns.

Police say they tried to calm Smith down so medics could treat his wounds, but he refused and even threw things at the officers. Officers say they were forced to taser Smith several times before he stopped resisting. Smith was taken to a local hospital where he later died.

An investigation is underway and an autopsy will be performed to determine what caused his death. Police say, right now, they aren’t looking for any suspects in the case. No shyt Sherlock ... the suspects are the ones wearing the blue uniforms and cooling off their taser weapons.

I wonder when the frequency of these taser deaths will begin to decline? We're still having them at a weekly rate. What say u?

2 comments:

johnnyg said...

first i want to say R.I.P. del and my prayers go out to his family. i am a friend of of dels and i don't think he was on drugs. I can't believe the elkhart pd is not hunting any suspects, the report says that their was yelling coming from the apartment and his cuts may not have been self inflicted. they may have been defensive wounds. one last thing, even though Del was a big guy, i think the elkhart pd has enough officers to subdue him without possibly killing him with multiple taser shots. and finally Del you will be missed!!

Unknown said...

Johnny G - Our prayers are with you and the other friends and family of Delano Smith. I hope that the true story of his death is eventually shared with the public...