Tasered man in QLD dies

12 Jun 2009, 11:42 am   -   Source: AAP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0
The man stopped breathing after he was shot with a Taser (getty).

The man stopped breathing after he was shot with a Taser (getty).

A man has died after being hit by a Taser as police were trying to subdue him in Queensland's north. 

RELATED

A man in northern Queensland has died after being shot with a police Taser. 

Police say they received triple-zero calls saying that a naked man was acting aggressively and damaging property at a home at Brandon, near Townsville at about 2:40am this morning. 

They arrived about ten minutes later and found the 39-year-old who had cuts on his arm.

The man was shot with the Taser while police were trying to arrest him. 

‘Man stopped breathing’

A police spokeswoman says the man had allegedly assaulted a person at the home and damaged the property. 

"It is believed that a Taser was deployed and that police managed to physically subdue the man, however, before the ambulance could arrive at the scene the man stopped breathing," the spokeswoman said.

"Efforts to resuscitate him failed."

The incident is being treated as a death in custody and a report is being prepared for the state coroner.

Controversial weapon

This isn’t the first time that Queensland police have come under scrutiny over their usage of Tasers. 

SBS Queensland Correspondent Stephan Armbruster investigated a story where police shot a man with a Taser three times while he was pinned to the ground. 

Tasers have a range of up to 10 metres and deliver 50,000 volts of low amperage electrical current is released for up to five seconds. 

They were introduced recently in Queensland as part of a $14 million program to equip almost 6,000 frontline officers with the weapons. 

Contributing factors

The acting president of the Queensland Police Union, Ian Leavers, says the man was well known to police. 

He says the man was armed and had either been released or absconded from Townsville hospital where he had been admitted for a mental health assessment. 

"Although a Taser was used by police, at this stage I believe that it is unlikely that this will ultimately emerge as the cause of death, due to other contributing factors," Mr Leavers says.

"I believe that the deceased had caused a number of injuries to a person prior to police arriving and whilst police were trying to apprehend him."

"It is possible that toxicology reports could also be helpful to the coroner".

Investigation underway

Mr Leavers said he was confident the officers involved acted appropriately given the circumstances.

"It should also be noted that if the police officers did not have a Taser available in this case, they would certainly have had to resort to use of a firearm due to the level of danger that they were exposed to given that the deceased armed himself with a number of weapons," he said.

Officers from the Ethical Standards Command are en route to the region.

Queensland’s police commissioner is expected to comment on the case at a media conference in Brisbane this afternoon.
 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.