An unidentifed Harris County sheriff pulled over a white pickup for a traffic violation on June 14th. The driver, Jose Jimenez, was asked to get out of his vehicle. We don't know what was said ... but, the deputy indicates that Jimenez hit him in the chest and began running away. The deputy says that he caught up to Jimenez about 75 feet away from the traffic stop and pumped him with 50,000 volts of electricity from his taser gun.
Paramedics were called to the scene to drive to save Jimenez's life with CPR. He was eventually taken to the Houston Northwest Medical Center. Jose Alfredo Jimenez died at the hospital."He (the suspect) fell to the ground and hit his head," said Christina Garza, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
The incident remains under investigation. Please POST A COMMENT ('Village Voices') if you have any additional information to share on this taser-related electrocution.
9 comments:
So far, it seems like a justified use of a Taser.
Gunfighter - Everything is "justified" when you get to tell the story. The other guy is dead ... so we aren't able to hear his side of the story, are we?
Which means nothing, Wayne... is there any indication that the officer acted inappropriately?
I think that we can assume a couple of things here... the first is the distance of the traffic stop to the place where the suspect was tased and fell to the ground... that indicates that there was an attempt at flight. If flight was attempted, the officer had every justification in the book to use force. The use of a taser would be well within the justifiable bounds for using force in pretty much any police department.
As for the dead man not being able to tell his tale... it is indeed unfortunate, but that sort of things happens when you run from the cops. There should be a lesson in that.
Gunfighter - I don't disagree with anything that you said. However, the federal courts ruled that police should not use their tasers unless they are facing imminent danger or threat. What threat was it to this officer when a guy ran away?
Is the penalty for resisting arrest supposed to be death-by-electrocution?
"What threat was it to this officer when a guy ran away?"
An at-large suspect can be considered a threat to public safety.
As for the penalty for resisting arrest... that is for a court to decide, however in order to effect the arrest, the officer used a permissible level of force to make it happen. The suspect died, that is unfortunate. The upside is that most suspects live through the arrest process, even the ones that resisit.
Gunfighter - Federal courts changed the rules of the game. They ruled that police cannot use their taser guns unless they are in imminent danger. Jose Jimenez did not offer imminent danger to the officers. As such, the officers went against the federal ruling when they used their taser guns.
It should cost them and their city some money...
The ruling of the 8th circuit court doesn't trump the United States Supreme court.
Gunfighter - Can you elaborate on your Supreme Court comment? Has the Supreme Court made a ruling on taser torture?
See Graham v. Connor. Also see Tennessee v. Garner. Neither of these cases mention Tasers on their own, but tasers are legal and they fall within the less lethal area when it comes to the use of force.
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