Waco police officers used multiple taser shots on a man who was already dazed and confused from a non-injury car accident. 36-year old Rodney Green was unarmed and simply heading home to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family. He wasn't attacking or posing any threat to police officers who approached him. From all accounts, he was simply dazed and confused after his car hit a nearby pole. The accident occurred at 6:30pm ... this wasn't some late-night escapade.
Instead of helping Green,
the unidentified Waco police officers decided to electrocute him three times with 50,000 volts of electricity from their taser guns in less than six minutes. Thanksgiving Day (when this taser-killing occurred) wasn't such a good holiday for Green or his family.
Watch the video report from the local news station:
The police spin indicates that the first unidentified officer arrived and encountered Green and began trying to identify him as well as asking questions of him.
"He was not responding to her in a normal way and was not answering her questions. Whenever she noticed him she immediately called for an assisting officer to come out with her," said Sargent Melvin Roseborough with the Waco Police Department.
When the second unidentified officer arrived they tried talking to Green again but he was acting strangely and still continued to try to walk out into oncoming traffic. That's when officers say they had to fire a taser at him.
All in all, it appears that three taser shots were taken in a span of six minutes. I guess the idea of simply diverting the flow of traffic didn't occur to them. Their first reaction was to electrocute the young Black man.
Shyt, if there had been a wandering deer on that Waco road ... the police would have stopped or diverted the traffic. Why doesn't an African American citizen get the same consideration?
"Since he was trying to walk out into traffic the officers were afraid for his safety, as well as their own," said Roseborough.
A third unidenfied officer arrived on scene to help get Green under control. The officer was able to place leg restraints on him, but he broke them into separate pieces. Police were finally able to bring him under control, and one officer noticed that the subject was no longer responding to them verbally or physically.
In other words, they figured out that they had screwed this one up completely. A citizen who needed their assistance was dead ... and for no justifiable reason. Why did the first two unidentified cops feel a need to brandish their weapon in the first place. Green was unarmed and dazed. How was he a threat to the officers?
The officers immediately requested paramedics and tried to revive him until the paramedics arrived. Green was transported to a Hillcrest Hospital and arrived in critical and unstable condition. Emergency room staff continued perform life saving measures until
he was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m.
Of course, it didn't take any time at all for the police to begin to blame the victim. They found no drugs, no drug paraphernalia, no criminal record or any other on-the-scene justification for killing Green. However, that didn't stop them for denigrating his reputation to the news media.
The police official in the above video poses a couple of rhetorical questions, "Was there an underlying medical condition, was there something in his system? What actually caused this individual to pass on us?"
From my perspective it looks like the answer to the second question is self-evident.
He died because trigger-happy police officers went 'Rambo' on him with their taser guns instead of adhering to their motto of 'Protect and Serve'. Rodney Green had no protection from the Waco Police Department.
The family of Rodney Green is being more patient as they await answers on why their son is dead.
All of the unidentified officers involved have been put on administrative leave with pay while the investigation is pending.
Please let this blog know if you have any updated information on this taser-related killing.
A preliminary autopsy report released in February said Green died of "Toxic effects of cocaine and the physiologic stress associated with police struggle compounded by cardiac hypertrophy and asthma." The autopsy also found Green suffered from cardiac hypertrophy, an abnormal enlargement of the heart muscle.
