A 17-year-old Charlottean is dead, and for no justifiable reason. Darryl Wayne Turner, a grocery store clerk who got into a rowdy argument with his manager, and then “advanced toward” a policeman, was killed yesterday by the officer. The weapon was a Taser, but it might as well have been a gun for all the difference it made to Turner. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers are supposed to use Tasers only in instances in which the only other recourse would be firing a gun. In other words, police are to use Tasers to prevent possible serious injury or death. Turner’s case is the first fatality by a police Taser in Charlotte, but it’s only the latest in a string of Taser-caused fatalities by police around the country.
Turner was angry but unarmed, and was approaching a police officer. He should have been wrestled to the ground and handcuffed — more than one officer was at the scene, after all — rather than get hit with 50,000 volts of electricity. If the officers in question don’t know how to properly subdue an unarmed suspect without Tasing them, then they were either poorly trained or the training didn’t stick. At the very least, they should be re-trained or fired. If it turns out the Taser use was unjustified, involuntary manslaughter charges would be in order. But this is Charlotte, where death-by-police is apparently not a prosecutable crime.
In 2005, Tasers were the focus of local controversy after two CMS students were hit with Tasers. Those incidents occurred soon after a man in a Lancaster, S.C., jail died after being shocked with a Taser six times during a fight with police officers. Nationwide, critics claim that Tasers are becoming a tool of convenience rather than one of next-to-last resort.
Yes, Tasers are a valuable weapon — but only if they are used for their intended purpose, as a last resort in order to avoid having to shoot someone — not as something to be pulled out at the first sign that a suspect is aggressive. And yes, police work is hard and dirty and et cetera and so forth all day long, but that doesn’t give anyone — especially not a paid public servant, let’s not forget — the wherewithal to use Tasers at the drop of a hat.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2008.
Darryl was an awesome young man with a bright future. If he was highly aggitated it was probably because he was scared. He tried to do the right thing and face up to what he did. Perhaps he was met with something other than \
“you did the right thing by coming back to face up to this”. He at least tried to be man. I am in shock.. I don’t understand how this could happen. Darryl would have become a wonderful young man, if he had the chance.
First, let express my sympathy to the family.
Now, one question . . . cops have to be certified with all issued weapons. For pepper spray, this means getting sprayed full in the face. For Tasers it means getting zapped just like a suspect would,
Now, since there are HUNDREDS of police trainees getting tased every, and Tasers are clearly so deadly, why aren’t there dozens of dead police trainees every year?
The officer in this sad case was Tasedm just as every other officer whi is issued one is. If Tasers are such deadly weapons, then where are the cops hiding all the dead bodies of the rookies they killed in training? Large agencies like NYPD & LAPD must kill dozens each year.
Or, more likely, Tasers really don’t cause such deaths. A lot of people, including professional athletes drop dead during extreme physical exertion from a unknow pre-existing medical problem.