Family of Tasered 10-Year-Old Boy Sues U.S. Police

PRESS TV
10/04/2012

U.S.  police officer Chris Webb shot a 10-year old boy with a taser gun in May, apparently because the child refused to wash the officer’s patrol car

A new legal case involving an American police officer using a taser gun against a 10-year-old boy in New Mexico has sparked controversial debates across the United States.

On October 26, the family of the boy identified as R.D lodged a lawsuit against the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and officer Chris Webb over accusation of battery failure to render emergency medical care, unreasonable seizure and excessive force.

Webb allegedly shot the boy by a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity apparently because he refused to wash the officer’s patrol car while attending an event at Tularosa Intermediate School in May 2012.

A photo of the victim’s chest released on Saturday shows bruises from the taser’s prongs that had pierced his chest.

According to R.D.’s lawyer Shannon Kennedy, the victim passed out after the incident but, instead of calling paramedics who were on the campus, Webb pulled the barbs from the taser out of the boy’s chest.

“He grabbed the wires, he yanked them and it came out of the prongs, and then he went up to me and he ripped the prongs out of my chest,” R.D. said in September.

The boy said Webb then took him to the restroom to clean up and then to the nurses office.

However, Webb’s account of the incident is totally different. The officer says a group of students had asked him to show them his taser gun but the weapon accidentally went off and hit R.D.

US police have already been under fire for using taser guns as there have been more than 530 taser-related deaths in the United States in recent years.

ASH/PKH/AZ

2012-11-04 20:40:16

Source: http://www.freepeoples5thestate.com/2012/11/family-of-tasered-10-year-old-boy-sues.html