July 29, 2013

Taser Death: Deomain Hayman (Wilmington, DE)

It happened again! This time an unarmed and frightened 28-year old Deomain Hayman died shortly after being tased twice by unidentified Wilmington (DE) police officers.

Police said Hayman led police on a high-speed chase about 8:10 p.m. on Sunday, July 21, when they tried to pull over the minivan that he was driving for a registration violation. Police abandoned the chase, but officers were later flagged down by witnesses who saw the van about a mile away.

The police say that Hayman became combative and police deployed Tasers. Here is where the story gets a little cloudy. The police say that the taser guns both malfunctioned. They won't say what the malfunction was ... just that the 50,000 volts of electricity unleashed by the two unidentified police officers didn't do their jobs.

And yet this unarmed man ... guilty of avoiding a traffic stop ... is dead.

It took four officers and several sets of handcuffs to take Hayman into custody. Police say that he was placed in a seated position on the ground. Minutes later, he had trouble breathing and appeared to go into cardiac arrest.

Officers removed his handcuffs, started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and applied a defibrillator, according to police spokesman, but could not revive Hayman, who was rushed to Wilmington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

We will see if the clouds can part and clarity be declared on this death. What we know for sure is than an unarmed man is dead ... and tasers were used. When will police stop reaching for their taser guns when a little commonsense and patience might do the trick?

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