Taser Autopsy: Bobby Merrill, Jr. (Saginaw, MI)

Unidentified Saginaw police officers shot their taser five times at 38-year old Bobby Merrill when they found him running into traffic and jumping on cars back in April. One of the taser blasts connected with Merrill and he went into cardiac arrest and died.

The Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas says that the police were blameless. Thomas indicates that the man who died caused his own death with cocaine and alcohol. According to the 'powers-that-be' the 50,000 volts of electricity pumped into his body by the taser had nothing to do with his death. [SOURCE]

The investigation showed that police officers subdued Merrill with the taser shot before handcuffing him and placing him in the back of their car. The police were high-fiving each other over their 'Wild West' show when they finally allowed the medical responders to see Merrill. The medical personnel had been onsite before the tasing ... but, they weren't allowed to help Merrill. Instead the police went buck wild ... fired off five taser shots ... and now an unarmed man is now dead.

The district attorney and the police want us to believe that drugs and alchohol killed this guy. In fact, the autopsy report acknowledges that he was tased before his death ... but, the report refuses to acknowledge that the taser contributed to his death.

I suspect that the Merrill family will end up taking this decision to civil court in order to get some justice for Bobby.

Taser Death: Bobby Merrill, Jr. (Saginaw, MI)

It happened again! This time we learn that the Saginaw Police Department decided to electrocute another UNARMED man to death with their taser guns. Bobby Merrill Jr., 38, was headed to his mother's house when he was met by police cars on Tuesday. [SOURCE]

The Saginaw Police Department said they received a complaint of someone disrupting traffic and jumping on to vehicles and they found Merrill just a few blocks from his destination. Merrill was unarmed and he didn't show the proper level of respect for the unidentified police officers on the scene. As a result the police pumped him several times with 50,000 volts of electricity from their taser guns.

Merrill’s mother, Dorothy Anderson, said she heard about the incident and arrived to see police officers performing CPR on her son. While in police custody Merrill began to have trouble breathing ... and he died.

Anderson wonders if police “did him unjustly” and used unnecessary force during the incident, contributing to Merrill’s death.

The police quickly released information about the criminal past of the victim. Merrill was convicted of charges, ranging in date from 1992 to 2008, including possession of cocaine, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted larceny from a motor vehicle, and assault to do great bodily harm less than murder.

I'm uncertain how this information has any relevance to the actions of the police on Tuesday. The penalty for unruly behavior or resisting arrest should never be death. Yet, here we are again ... an UNARMED man is dead as a result of per-judicial electrocution. Something is simply not right...