A young man will never see tomorrow as the result of taser-happy Snohomish County sheriff's deputies who chose to pump 50,000 volts of electricity into an unarmed 120-pound man rather than use other less-lethal methods of subduing him.25-year old Adam Colliers was in Gold Bar, WA to help watch over a parapalegic man. For some reason he 'snapped' and began yelling and screaming. The police were called in. Instead of assessing the situation and trying to help Colliers ... two police officers electrocuted the guy with their tasers. After Colliers was hit the officers discovered he was not breathing.
When the fire department aid car arrived the EMT’s continued CPR and then took the man to Valley General Hospital in Monroe where he was pronounced dead.
The two unidentified officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. One of the deputies is a three-year veteran of the force and the other has four years of law enforcement experience. Both are under 30 years of age.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiners Office will conduct an autopsy to determine cause of death. I'm sure that the police will try to blame it on drugs ... that is their usual tactic in these situations.
14 comments:
A taser is considered a standard, nonlethal tactic used to subdue a suspect when other methods are ineffective.
I'm not saying that they were justified in using a taser at that point but when used properly and not affected by medical conditions or drugs it is not lethal. If you have a heart problem and are hit by a taser, you are at a higher risk of death, but anyone who really cares isn't resisting the police anyway.
@Dargus
So those with medical conditions and drug users who appear to be resisting arrest lose their right to life?
What ever happened to beating the shit out of people with clubs. Go go gadget beat down.
Dargus, you are a fucking idiot. Police use tasers because they are too lazy to subdue people by traditional means and they just like shooting people. Cops are thugs, and people who defend them are assholes.
@James
You should really think before posting such nonsense.
Tasers have a very high success rate in subduing criminals who could potentially hurt other people.
There may be a few incidents where they are lethal, however this is very rare.
If you are resisting police then you know the risks.
To all of the commentators.
Do you really know how many people have died as a result of being tasered? Or the stories about people who were tasered for no apparent intelligent reason? Some of these so called "criminals" were not doing anything illegal.
Do you know about tasers being used to subdue children? It has happened. What is the justification for that use of this particular.
Villager has been keeping a running record of the number of deaths that have occurred. It is not that rare for people to die from being tasered.
@Villager,
I think that we need to do some more educational work on this subject. It is obvious that the point is not coming across as we see it.
Yes people are killed by tasers. And children have been subdued with them. But people are also killed by clubs.
Its not the fault of the taser its the fault of the officer using it.
That or its an accident and its noones fault.
Tasers effectively subdue criminals, with a very very low rate of serious damage. Also police dont have to get into physical confrontation and risk injury.
All I guess I need to figure out what Reddit is all about. We've had remarkable hits today on this blog post as a result of Reddit.
re: Adam Colliers. He didn't have to die yesterday morning. He was 120 pounds. He was alone. He was unarmed. The two police officers could have subdued him without killing him. They appear to have taken the lazy way out...
...I guess we need to learn more. Right now they are trying to see if the kid had drugs in his system. Cops like to blame it on drugs rather than their own lack of training.
of course the police were "attacked" why would two say they weren't?
After a fantastic Labor Day weekend I return home to learn the news of this insanity. It's easy for people to look at an article and just assume that Adam (or others like him) are drugged out sociopaths. I knew Adam. He was a very non-violent, quiet, good natured guy. He was no saint, he definitely wasn't perfect, he didn't have his life completely together.. but hearing of this has shocked me to the core. He was a good guy and I can't imagine what a person like him could have done to deserve death.
Jim - The young man didn't weigh more than 120 pounds. He was unarmed. How much of an 'attack' could it have possibly been for two police officers? They go lazy and chose to electrocute him rather than use less lethal methods to subdue him. Their laziness got him killed.
Jennifer - Thanx for sharing your personal insights re: Adam Colliers. Our prayers go out to his family and friends ... as they do for the two unidentified officers that have to live with the memory of killing a young and unarmed man who didn't need to be killed.
Adam was a close friend of mine and was harmless. Yes he had minor problems in his life but he never was known to raise his voice and scream. The sherriffs in that area are the criminal. I get that they need to control and be assholes to keep people in line. But at the same time they are bullies. adam wouldnt hurt a f'in flie. he went out of his way to care for other and the police were probley bored and picking on him. I think they are murders and it kills me to know that adam died out of those police officers bordom. He alwys tried to do things right and always mentioned how he wanted to enjoy life day to day and live as long as he could. THANK YOU FUCKING SHERRIFFS FOR RUIN AA AMAZING MANS LIFE HOPE YOU LIVE A MISERABLE LIFE!!!!
RIP Adam colliers love you forever and always
If we can take out the emotion and approach this with just the factual information at hand, we can get a better grip on this subject.
First @ Dargus. Tasers aren't non-lethal, they are less lethal. That is a very important semantic difference.
@ Thomas, this is the big problem with the use of force by police, and the perception by some members of the public... if less potentially lethal force is used to subdue a subject it usually requires the application of brute force to wrestle the resisting subject... or, frankly, beat the subject into the handcuffs. When that happens, the subject usually has to go to the hospital for major contusions or broken bones. What follows is community outrage over the "brutality" of the officers who hurt the subject.
@ James: Would you rather have to fight or beat someone to gain their compliance or gain said compliance without risking your own life while coming to grips with someone who is already in a combative or agitated state. It isn't about laziness, it is about prudence. I wonder about your use of the term "Traditional means", I suspect you think that the officers should have used their batons... their steel batons to beat the deceased until he stopped resisting. Have you ever seen what people look like after a baton-drivin ass whooping?
@ Will. Absolutely correct... Taser related deaths are fairly rare when you consider the number of Tasings that happen across America on any given Saturday night.
@ MsLadyDeborah. Regarding Tasers used on children: The age of the subject has nothing whatsoever to do with legal application of force.
To all, we have to go back to the original call to the police. According to Villager's post, Colliers "snapped" and the police were called. Do we know any more than that? Snapped? Snapped how? was he hurting someone? Was he yelling and screaming? was he having a seizure? Who called the police? What was said in the dispatch? What did Colliers do when the officers arrived? All of these things are a factor. Was Colliers known to be a mental patient? Was he using drugs?
Lets calm down and find facts before going off the deep end and immediately condemming the cops. After all, none of this would have happened if they hadn't been called first, and they weren't called because Colliers was sitting there playing his guitar.
according to his x gf he was high on meth riding circles on his bike yelling in the street..
Nunya - ...hardly seems like a reason to lose your life, huh?!
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