Mesa Police Admit Taser Shots Contributed to Death of Francisco Sesate

Mesa Police Department issued a report that acknowledges that the two taser shots of 50,000 volts each into the body of 36-year old Francisco Sesate contributed to his death. The report concludes that drugs (opiates, amphetamines and cocaine) and physical exertion contributed to his death on August 20. [SOURCE]

Doctors who treated him at Banner Desert Medical Center said the combination of drugs in Sesate's system, the blasts from the Taser and his 108-degree body temperature meant his organs were "basically cooking inside his body."

Miguel "Mike" Sesate told investigators he last saw his son the day before, when he dropped him off at the Greyhound station. Francisco had $500 in his pocket and ambitions of reconnecting with his daughters in Nebraska, Miguel Sesate said.

"Francisco had planned to move to Nebraska to start a new life and to be close to his two daughters," the father told police. "Things weren't working out for Francisco since he was released from prison three months earlier."

Instead of being helped ... Francisco Sesate was killed.

Sesate created a disturbance in a convenience store parking lot. He was buck naked. He behaved badly. However, he was not armed. And the penalty for disturbing the peace is NOT DEATH.

About 1:45 p.m., Officer Dennis Riordan arrived and found Sesate hiding behind an advertising sign outside the front door. Seven hours after the police arrived ... Sesate was dead.

"Sesate was grunting and moaning and not obeying my commands," Riordan wrote in his report. A second officer arrived, and Sesate came forward, but refused to comply with police.

So the police decided it was a good idea to use their taser twice to kill Sesate. It appears that disrespecting the police gives them a license to kill.

After Sesate shoved the second officer, Riordan fired his Taser, hitting Francisco Sesate in the chest. Cell phone video shot by customer inside the store captured the man falling through the business' front door and onto the ground.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube (can anyone point the EV-Blog to this video?), shows the officers struggling with Sesate on the floor as they attempt to handcuff both hands. When the man refused to place both hands behind his back, Riordan fired his Taser a second time.

Police successfully handcuffed the man.

"After Francisco was rolled over on his right side, I noticed that Francisco appeared not to be responsive or breathing," a police report states.

The handcuffs were removed and police began CPR. Too late. Sesate was too far gone at this point.

Detective Steve Berry, a police spokesman, said it's department policy to investigate incidents where an officer's use of force resulted in death. That investigation remains ongoing, and a final use of force report has not yet completed.

When will the police recognize that their use of tasers is causing more damage than good? When will the training for restraint of a suspect be upgraded to eliminate the use of taser guns for convenience rather than for cause/need?

What say u?

Taser Death: Francisco Sesate (Mesa, AZ)

UPDATE (8/25/09): The taser victim identified as 36-year old Francisco P. Sesate.

---

It happened again! An unidentified man died after being tasered by Mesa police yesterday. This man is the 32nd person killed by police taser guns in America this year. These taser-related deaths seem to follow a pattern:

1. Police arrive
2. Someone disrespects the police
3. Police taser the disrespectful person
4. Taser victim dies while in police custody
5. Police tell press about 'excited delirium'
6. Police suggest that taser victim is on drugs
7. Autopsy results take weeks to be shared with public

Anyhow, here is the story as told by The Arizona Republic:

---

A man who was Tasered by Mesa police Thursday after stripping naked and jumping on cars in a convenience store parking lot died eight hours after he was subdued.

The man, whose identity has not yet been released, lost consciousness as three officers tried to handcuff him after he fell to the ground from the shock of the Taser, said Steve Berry, a police spokesman.

The officers immediately uncuffed the man and started medical attention. He was revived sometime before arriving at a local hospital, but his condition continued to deteriorate throughout the day and he died at about 9 p.m.

The police department is investigating the incident and waiting on autopsy reports from the medical examiner, but officers do not think the Taser caused the death, Berry said.

Berry said it was possible that "excited delirium," a condition that occurs when the heart shuts down because it can't handle a stressful event, was the cause of death.

He also suggested that the man was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time.

"Taking the fact that it's in broad daylight and you've got basically a grown man stripping down naked and jumping on cars, it leads us to believe he may have been under influence of some drugs or narcotics at the time, but that's up to the medical examiner's office to look into," he said.

The incident started when an officer arrived at the convenience store, at Country Club Drive and Southern Avenue, and tried talking to the suspect, who was standing naked near the front of the store.

When a second officer arrived, the two tried to handcuff the man. He pushed one of the officers, prompting them to Taser him at least once.

The pair, joined by a third officer, struggled still to detain him and by the time they got the handcuffs on the man, he had stopped breathing, Berry said.

---

I must admit that I'm truly worried that the pace of these taser-related deaths is getting quicker. We are averaging a death each week. Some village voices indicate that a taser gun is a 'less lethal' weapon. However, the training provided by law enforcement officers through the Use of Force Continumm indicates that the taser is 'non-lethal'. In either case ... do we need to report the story of a taser death every week of the year?

Isn't it time for congressional hearings on this continued taser torture taking place in America?