Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times

[Bling]

A Clay County woman's family said it's seeking justice after their loved one died shortly after being shocked 10 times with Taser guns during a confrontation with police.



The family of 56-year-old Emily Delafield said it would take the Green Cove Springs Police Department to court, according to a WJXT-TV report.

In April 2006, officers with the police department said they were called to a disturbance at a home in the 400 block of Harrison Street just before 5 p.m.

In a 911 call made to the Green Cove Springs, Delafield can be heard telling a dispatcher that she believed she was in danger:

Dispatcher: And what's the problem?

Delafield: My sister is waiting on my property.

Dispatcher: Your what?

Delafield: My sister (inaudible) is on my property trying to harm me.

Officers said they arrived to find Delafield in a wheelchair, armed with two knives and a hammer. Police said the woman was swinging the weapons at family members and police.

Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.

Family attorney Rick Alexander said Delafield's death could have been prevented and that there are four things that jump out at him about the case.

"One, she's in a wheelchair. Two, she's schizophrenic. Three, they're using a Taser on a person that's in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes," Alexander said.

According to a police report, one of the officers used her Taser gun nine times for a total of 160 seconds and the other officer discharged his Taser gun once for a total of no more than five seconds.

A medical examiner found Delafield died from hypertensive heart disease and cited the Taser gun shock as a contributing factor, the report said. On her death certificate, the medical examiner ruled Delafield's death a homicide.

The family said it plans to sue the Green Coves Springs Police Department now that it has all the reports regarding their loved one's death.

"We're going to try to compensate the estate and the family and try to get justice," Alexander said.

He said he believes the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Delafield's family and that justice will be served.

"I think that this evidence is going to show, along with some of the evidence we've collected outside of here, that there is no reason Emily Delafield should have died that day," Alexander said.

He said he plans to file a notice to sue sometime before the end of the year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wkmg/20070919/lo_wkmg/14147512

[Oni]

This is really sad. Its a direct reflection on the fact that police are only relying on their tasers as a means of subduing a person. There NEEDS to be more instruction on how to calm a person down, disarm them and then take appropriate action. This was a person with a mental illness that is handicapped. Her FAMILY turned to the police for help, not for them to KILL her.

When will police departments wake up and take the proper action? There are kids, handicapped and innocents dying because they are taking the easy way out of doing their jobs.

[pod]

There is a convenience factor associated with Taser use. It's so easy just to zap the perp rather than wrestle him or her to the ground.

Now, in most situations, yeah, zap 'em. If you make physical contact with the suspect, you're at risk.

But if they're crippled or what-have-you, alternative forms of restraint must be used.

As for kids? Kids need to be zapped more.

I would dare to say 99.9 percent of Taser usage ends up the way it should. It's these .1 percent cases that get people all worked up.

It's why the weapon is classified as "less-than-lethal", rather than non-lethal.

My verdict: Zap away, but evaluate the situation more thoroughly before deploying it.

[coach]

She was the one that called 911 in the first place?

[JMT]

if i am going to risk getting my fingers sliced off or eye stabbed out, you can be sure i'd rather taser the nutcase swinging the knives instead.

the outcome here is unfortunate but we are hearing it from the family's lawyer, who actually used the word "like".

[Apotheosis]

i'd like to hear the other side of the story please.

[coach]

2 knives and a hammer! That's pretty good for a wheelchair bound lady. Where was she holding the hammer?

[yume]

She was juggling them. And the house cat too.