Taser Death Ruled A Homicide
by digby
Despite the fact that there seems to be a taser death a day (like this latest one from Ann Arbor) in the United States, this is something you very rarely see:
The Denver coroner has ruled that the July 9 death of an inmate at the new jail was the result of homicide.
Marvin Booker was being processed on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia when he got into a scuffle with jail deputies. He was shocked with a Taser device, placed in a chokehold and held to the floor as jail deputies piled on top.
Other inmates said Booker, 56, who was listed as 175 pounds in Denver court records but was actually 5-foot-5 and 135 pounds, was then carried to the holding cell at the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Facility and dropped face first. He never recovered.
The coroner’s finding means simply that another human being caused Booker’s death, rather than from natural causes, suicide or an accident. It is not the coroner’s role to determine who might have caused the death or whether the homicide was justifiable.
The coroner ruled Booker’s death was caused by “cardiorespiratory arrest during physical restraint.”
[…]
He also said the National Institute of Corrections will conduct an independent review of Denver’s use-of-force policies.
The Denver Sheriff Department is conducting a separate review to determine whether the five violated any of Denver’s restraint policies and if new policies and procedures are needed.
Now why would they do that? If a citizen doesn’t know that he is likely to be killed in the police station by asphyxiation and electrocution for failing to immediately follow a police officers order, then he deserves to die. This is America.
You can’t do something like this and expect to live through it:
At least three videos captured the struggle, but none of them has been released while the investigation is underway.
In a news conference, Mayor John Hickenlooper said he has not seen the videos.
The coroner’s report describes what is on the video, which confirms inmates’ accounts of the scuffle that began after a deputy grabbed Booker’s arm to lead him to the holding cell and he swung his arm to shake her off.
“The booking deputy was joined by three other officers who forced the decedent first to a chair, and then face down on the floor. Two officers struggled to cuff his hands behind his back; another tried to control his legs; a fourth lay across his upper back and applied a carotid ‘sleeper’ hold around his neck.
“The decedent continued to resist, and the officer applying the neck hold requested a Taser. A fifth officer applied the Taser to his leg and discharged it for 8 seconds. The decedent ceased resisting shortly after the use of the Taser.”
The sleeper hold was applied to him for two minutes and 30 seconds, but deputies said it was released intermittently to check whether Booker was still resisting.
Wilson said that such holds are permissible under jail policy, but all deputy actions will be reviewed based on the unique circumstances of this case.
After Booker was placed face down in the holding cell, a deputy remained on his back for another 90 seconds to two minutes.
A short time later, another deputy saw he was not breathing and began CPR.
Booker, who had a long but largely misdemeanor criminal history, had cocaine in his bloodstream, the autopsy found, but not at levels that would have been toxic.
It’s hard to know in this situation whether they just smothered the man or electrocuted him and smothered him. But either way, no one can deny that wanting to retrieve your shoes before you go into a jail cell is reason enough for you to be killed. It’s the price we pay for our freedoms.
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