Utah Man dies from Police Taser

[Sombeech]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6764721


Son of KSL editorial director dies after being tased by police
June 9th, 2009 @ 7:35pm

By John Hollenhorst

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- A 32-year-old man died Tuesday afternoon after he was tased by a Hurricane police officer.

Brian Cardall is the son of KSL's Editorial Director Duane Cardall.

Brian Cardall and his family

He and his wife, who is six months pregnant, were traveling south on State Road 59 just outside of Hurricane after visiting his family in Salt Lake City.

According to his wife, Cardall, who has a recent history of mental illness, was having an episode that prompted them to pull over to medicate.

Once stopped, Cardall got out of the vehicle and began to run down the road.

His wife called 911. Not long after, she found out he had been tased and was unresponsive.

CPR was administered on scene. Cardall was taken to the Dixie Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office is investigating.

In a press release on its website, the Sheriff's office writes:

Police and medical personnel responded to a call for assistance with an agitated subject on State Route 59 this afternoon in Washington County. During the incident, a Hurricane City Police Officer deployed a taser and the subject lost consciousness. The subject was treated within moments by EMS personnel, but was pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital.

Cardall was a doctoral candidate in biology at Northern Arizona University.

In a statement his family said, "Brian is a wonderful son, brother, father, and husband who loved being with people. He was full of personality and wanted to make a difference in this world. He was working on his PhD in Molecular Ecology at Northern Arizona University. He loved being in the outdoors and with his daughter Ava and beautiful wife Anna. We will miss Brian but are comforted by our faith."

The Hurricane Police Department and the Taser company also issued statements Tuesday regarding this incident.

[denaliguide]

OMG! WTF?

[Scott Card]

This story has the potential to get interesting and very ugly. This made me sad. I will wait to see the facts, from both sides before I reach a conclusion (which I may never reach since all I will hear is the media version).

[cilantro13]

Interesting and really sad.

According to the segment on tasers shown on Discovery Channel's Time Warp, all they are supposed to do is momentarily turn your muscles into jelly.

My question, however, is why there is a taser out for a 911 call? There must be more facts we aren't getting. As Scott Card said, hard to pass judgment on this one.

My thoughts go out to the wife and family.

[DiscGo]

That is really sad.

[accadacca]

Tough deal. It sure doesn't make sense yet. I am sure the police report will come out soon. I used to hang out with one of the other Cardall boys.

[CrazyFinn]

I thought Tasers were not supposed to kill. What a bad series of events...

[JP]

My question, however, is why there is a taser out for a 911 call?

I'm guessing you worded that one wrong. 911 can lead to the use of less than lethal and lethal force. 911 calls are calls for emergencies whether it be for an erratic driver or someone attempting to kill someone. 911 calls come in all different types of circumstances.

Here's a possibility why: (the wife calling 911 and telling them her husband is having a mental episode)

"...has a recent history of mental illness, was having an episode that prompted them to pull over to medicate."

"...got out of the vehicle and began to run down the road.."

When the police confronted him, this was an option to take control of a situation.

Less than lethal measures have been developing for the military and police over the years. As technology advances, so do the methods. Even pepper spray played a roll in deaths, not the sole cause, but did contribute.

It will be interesting to see what underlying medical issues he had. But, in any case, it is always sad when someone loses a life. My heart goes out to the family.

[cilantro13]

Good point.

I think my question was more from the perspective of curiosity as to the events that caused the officer to say to himself, I need to get this guy stopped and I will therefore taze him.

Who knows, when all is said and done, tazing him might have actually been for his safety to keep him from running into traffic or any number of reasons.

Nonetheless, very tragic. I read these stories and then realize that our number can be up at any time.

[savanna3313]

How truly sad. His brother is the very talented Paul Cardall who has been awaiting a heart transplant for a long time.

[JP]

curiosity as to the events that caused the officer to say to himself, I need to get this guy stopped and I will therefore taze him.

Who knows, when all is said and done, tazing him might have actually been for his safety to keep him from running into traffic or any number of reasons.

Nonetheless, very tragic. I read these stories and then realize that our number can be up at any time.

Many reasons to taze, who knows; the guy's safety, police safety, general public's safety As this investigation goes on, I'm sure there will be answers to just about all questions. Even the company that produces this less than lethal means will want to know. They probably have over thousands upon thousands successful uses of their products and want to know. The tazer has taken lives before, but in each of those cases there were underlying medical issues.

Yes, very tragic. Anytime someone needs to be subdued and the use of a non-lethal weapon/tactic is deployed it is truly tragic. The whole point was not to cause any real physical injury, nobody expects death to be a result.

[Jaxx]

what was the "mental illness". Sad situation for the family indeed.

[LOAH]

Good grief, whatever happened to the good ol' days when cops would man up and tackle a guy?

That taser is becoming more popular in situations that aren't necessarily dangerous (arguing with a cop being one of them).

Not trying to fry the officer, but the tazer should be the second to last resort.

I'm sure this particular officer feels horrible and this will probably haunt him forever.

Perhaps it should.

Then again, perhaps he actually had a legitimate reason to use the 'less-than-lethal' force. Maybe Dude wanted a fight.

I bet the wife wishes she'd never called emergency services though...

This is tragic all around.

[CrazyFinn]

[quote="LOAH"]Good grief, whatever happened to the good ol' days when cops would man up and tackle a guy? [/qoute]

I thought of this too. Why don't they just grab and handcuff anymore? Hopefully they go back to this now.

[snccoulter]

I can tell you why a cop would tase someone before he would tackle someone. Officer Safety!! If i give someone a command and they don't want to comply it is much safer for me to tase them than to get into a knock out drag down with them. it is apparent the individual will not comply and why would a cop put himself in a position where he could get hurt when there is a safer way for him. The taser is known as a less then lethal means of controlling a suspect weather he is mentally unstable or just wants to fight. I can tell you I would much rather tangle with someone who is just out right mean and wants to fight then with someone who is mentally unstable. you have no idea what a unstable man will do. in the end all the cop wants to do is get the situation safely under control and go home to his or her family at the end of a shift so yes you use the most tactically sound/safe means of completing the job. Just by reading the little bit that has come out as of now shows the individual was not rational.
YES it is sad that a man lost his life and that a family lost their father and i do want to see how the investigation plays out, but i will not be surprised to find out that the cop attempted to calm the man then tased him because he felt like there was some kind of threat to himself or the officer.

[CrazyFinn]

Of course it's the cops safety but they were wrong about the Tazer safety. Those things always have bothered me. So I'll just have to get the T-shirt:

[LOAH]

I can tell you why a cop would tase someone before he would tackle someone. Officer Safety!! If i give someone a command and they don't want to comply it is much safer for me to tase them than to get into a knock out drag down with them.

It's part of the job that you signed on for. There's always a risk of getting hurt on the job as a police officer. Of course self preservation should be on your mind, but attacking an unarmed person with an extremely painful weapon is an abuse of power and unethical.

A guy doesn't like his ticket, calls you names, doesn't want to 'play nice' and instead of handling the problem like real police officers, we see this trend of zapping someone, despite the factual evidence that the tazer could kill them. The officer doesn't know that person's background and can't deduce whether or not the electricity might aggravate a preexisting condition.

Man up, put his face on the hood and cuff him. You've been trained and it's what your predecessors did. Hiding behind an amped up cattle prod is weak unless real threats to the officer are observed.

There are times when it should be used, but like I said, that should be the second to last resort, the last being the use of deadly force.

I don't have a problem with the police and I respect the job that they do. It can't be easy to deal with society's rejects all day, but the tazer is NOT a safe answer to disobedience.

Throwing high voltage currents into someone's body could go wrong in so many ways.

[JP]

It's part of the job that you signed on for. There's always a risk of getting hurt on the job as a police officer. Of course self preservation should be on your mind, but attacking an unarmed person with an extremely painful weapon is an abuse of power and unethical.

Ahh, Loah... They didn't sign up to be MMA Fighters Any Federal, State, County or Local agencies that can find ways to lessen the injuries to it's employees, suspects and or innocent bystanders is key. Yes, there always is a risk of getting hurt, but minimizing that risk on all parties is what everyone strives for. Self preservation and preservation of life is job one. A "painful weapon" (in your words) is not an abuse of power. A "painful weapon" or as I like to phrase it, less than lethal is there to deter and prevent the use of the next step in an cop's arsenal, deadly physical force. Some situations will leave cops with no other choice, but his firearm. But, having a law enforcement body updated with the latest technology is only a plus for the community in which they head out to work everyday. Having a cop with resources available to him and as the situation changes, he can safely change the status of things is paramount.

And Loah all cops that carry those less than lethal weapons had a taste of those very painful instruments They know first hand what it feels like.

[LOAH]

I know they've had to get tazed to carry a tazer.

The problem is that the tazers are getting used for situations that don't warrant the use something that could potentially kill someone.

Every time a tazer is used, the suspect's life is in danger. Not everybody reacts to the stimulus the same way.

This is only okay if the police officer's life is also in danger.

A mouthy kid that doesn't want to lie on the ground isn't just cause for the use of 'less than lethal' force.

Once a confrontation has become physical, then the suspect has initiated the use of force. Defense is the only reaction and is justified.

Backtalk isn't worthy of a potential death sentence.

My point is that the officer isn't qualified to judge whether or not somebody is going to have heart complications or respiratory arrest after being exposed to the high voltage shock that a tazer packs.

They have a much better idea what a baton will do when they swing it and they can make a more informed decision before they go ahead with that.

The tazer is getting tossed around like candy and it shouldn't be.

This poor guy (subject of thread) never got a trial and, as far as we know, never even committed a crime. He's dead though.

Why?

Because a tazer was deployed and caused a reaction with his body that the police officer was not qualified to foresee.

My main point is that using a tazer at the first sign of trouble is a problem that is growing. Soon enough, we'll see people getting zapped for passing a dirty look to an officer.

[JP]

being exposed to the high voltage shock that a tazer packs

My main point is that using a tazer at the first sign of trouble is a problem that is growing. Soon enough, we'll see people getting zapped for passing a dirty look to an officer.

High voltage; same "voltage" your own body produces. It just disrupts things for a little bit.

Escalating circumstances result in its use. After repeated attempts and the threat of its use, it is deployed.

CN/CS gas to pepper spray to the Tazer. The chemicals effect everyone and the Tazer only effects the individual. As technology advances, so will these type of less than lethal arsenals the military and paramilitary will have at their fingertips. In which they should have.

I'm sure people have been Tazed by giving an evil look to cops. But, now these things are somewhat computerized and they have a time-stamp of when they were deployed and the more expensive models have little vid cams on them for all to see why they were deployed. So, that will take care of the possible abuse issues.