Coroner Rules 'Homicide' in the Taser-Killing of Alonzo Ashley

This blog told you about the taser killing of 29-year old Alonzo Ashley that took place at the Denver Zoo earlier this year. Denver's coroner recently ruled that the death at the hands of the police was a homicide. [SOURCE]

Officers said Ashley bit them before they electrocuted him with 50,000 volts of electricity from a taser gun. Police shot the taser gun FIVE times even though they had Ashley face-down on the ground, with shoulders pressed down, hands cuffed behind his back and legs crossed, flexed and pressed toward his buttocks, the autopsy by Dr. John Carver says.


Ashley began convulsing and he was dead before paramedics arrived.

Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, however, said Ashley's death met no legal criteria for prosecution under Colorado homicide statutes.

"This clearly is not a homicide under Colorado law," Morrissey said. "I have some real questions about using the term homicide."

Police Chief Gerry Whitman said all the officers who responded to the incident will remain on duty. Additional investigations by police and Manager of Safety's Office to determine whether policies were violated are pending.

Ashley's death sparked protests by the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance. Dr. Timothy Tyler, pastor of Denver's Shorter Community AME Church, said that the city promised changes after Marvin Booker's death at the city jail in July 2010 but that apparently nothing has changed.

He predicted the Police Department will investigate its own and determine that the officers followed the restraint policy.

"Perhaps the restraint policy needs to be changed," Tyler said.

I suspect that the next thing we hear from this case will be a lawsuit filed by Mr. Ashley's family.

Taser Death: Alonzo Ashley (Denver, CO)

It happened again. We learned that another person's death has been hastened along by the use of 50,000 volts of electricity from a police officer's taser gun. This time the victim was 29-year old Alonzo Ashley.

Denver police said that officers used a Taser on Ashley but that the device was ineffective and he continued to struggle with officers until he was finally held down.

Police were called to the zoo at 5:02 p.m. Monday after the man threatened his girlfriend and attacked a zoo security guard. After arriving, officers contacted Ashley, who was acting irrationally, and he repeatedly refused to comply with officers' commands, police said.

Ashley's girlfriend, who asked not to be named, denied that Ashley threatened her. The girlfriend says that he was getting delirious because of the extreme heat. She told TV reporters that Ashley had been putting his head in a fountain, and zoo security told him to stop.

When police attempted to restrain Ashley, he attacked the officers and zoo security guards — hitting one officer and biting another officer and a security guard, police said. At this point officers used a taser gun on the young man.

Family members say that Ashley was "a positive kid."

Officers later called paramedics to examine the man, citing his "unusual behavior and extraordinary strength." While waiting for the paramedics, he started to convulse and stopped breathing, police said. He was taken to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police say that drugs and drug paraphernalia were found on the suspect. Ashley's girlfriend said he had no drugs on him.

Some community members, including civil rights activist Alvertis Simmons, the Rev. Patrick Demmer and Pastor Reginald Holmes, announced tonight they plan to hold a rally outside the Denver Zoo entrance beginning at 2 p.m. Friday.

Simmons said in an e-mail, "The killing of this Black man is questionable at least and suspicious at best."