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It amazes me that people shot by taser guns never seem to have the taser gun listed as their 'cause of death'. Joe Spruill was talking with a neighbor early on the morning of January 27. Wayne County Sheriff Deputies Martin McAlduff and Zachary Kinlaw rolled into the neighborhood and asked Spruill to go home (two doors down).
Something happened during the walk.
Police say that Spruill became combative and started throwing things from his pockets at them, so they told him they were putting him under arrest for disorderly conduct.
One would think that the taser had something to do with his death. But, that is not what the medical examiner is saying.The medical examiner claims that Spruill died of a cocaine overdose. A torn plastic bag was found in his esophagus, and tests showed a lethal amount of cocaine in his system. [SOURCE]
The two officers are back on the job. Joe Spruill is dead. The 'powers-that-be' are comfortable that life is good. Me? I think that a man shouldn't be killed in his front yard for resisting arrest. Spruill should have been given medical attention ... not a lethal dose of taser juice.
America continues to experience a taser-related death on a weekly basis. This week the taser-killing took place in Goldsboro NC. Joe Spruill, Jr., a 33-year old man, found himself arguing with a neighbor at 5:30am this morning. Deputies Martin McAlduff and Zachary Kinlaw arrived and asked Spruill if he lived there, and he said he did. A neighbor said that he actually lived two doors down, so the deputies say they began to escort him home.
The deputies said Spruill became combative and started throwing things from his pockets at them, so they told him they were putting him under arrest for disorderly conduct. They say Spruill resisted arrest, so Deputy McAlduff decided to zap him with 50,000 volts of electricity from his taser gun.
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One barb hit Spruill in the neck and the other in the lower back. The police knew right away that something was wrong. Spruill was unresponsive. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Spruill's family said he had a weak heart and had been hospitalized over Christmas after suffering a seizure. He had only been home for a few weeks.
He was married with three children. He didn't need to die this morning. There is no excuse for the police to have killed this man. The penalty for resisting arrest does not merit a death penalty ... even in the deep South.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Office said Spruill had a criminal record and they'd had to use a Taser on him in the past during arrests. When will America realize that something is seriously wrong in the taser policy used by many police departments around the nation?
Spruill's body was sent to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill for an autopsy. Deputy Mcalduff has been placed on administrative office duty pending the results of the investigation.
Am I the only one tired of these weekly taser deaths?
