A Canberra man who was found covered in blood with a severed finger and a large knife has died after being tasered by police.
Officers were called to an address at Waramanga in the city's south on Tuesday morning following reports of a man yelling and smashing glass.
ACT police chief Justine Saunders said the man, who was in his mid fifties and known to police, didn't comply with officers' instructions to de-escalate the situation.
Instead, he struck his leg with the knife.
"The police considered all the options available to him to ensure he couldn't continue to hurt himself and to ensure in doing so they maintained the safety of officers as well," Ms Saunders told reporters on Wednesday.
"On that basis a taser, as it is commonly known, was deployed by an officer on one occasion."
The man was left disoriented and was handcuffed, before becoming unresponsive.
Despite 25 minutes of CPR paramedics were unable to revive him.
The ACT coroner and AFP professional standards branch are investigating the incident, which is being treated as a death in custody.
Ms Saunders said her officers acted appropriately under the circumstances.
"Based on the information known to me, entirely appropriately," she said.
The police chief baulked at suggestions the officers involved should be suspended.
"Based on the information known to me, I can't see why they should be," Ms Saunders said.
ACT police have responded to more than 13,000 calls for assistance in the past 12 months and fired their tasers 11 times.
Ms Saunders said a rollout of the weapons in coming years would continue as planned.
