Tuesday, March 24, 2009

15-Yr. Old Brett Elder Was Tasered To Death By Bay City Police!


This is just another case that illustrates why Tasers should not be so readily used by police officers to subdue someone.Why it took three officers to subdue a 15-yr. old kid is beyond me!What was the reason that he was tasered in the first place? It doesn't seem like it was necessary or even appropriate in this case! Police procedures & how they are applied need to be reconsidered.Here's more on this story from mlive.com:

"Eugene E. Elder Sr. figures police killed his teenage son unjustifiably with a Taser, and he plans to fire back with a lawsuit.

"I'm going after the city. I don't care," said Elder, 55, of Bay City. "There's
no reason for killing my boy. He didn't do nothing wrong."

Elder conceded his 15-year-old son - Brett L. Elder - had been drinking alcohol Saturday night before police subdued him early Sunday morning with a Taser following a disturbance in a Bay City apartment.

But relatives said Brett "Dewey" Elder stood 5-foot-6 and weighed about 140 pounds. They said he was no match for three Bay City Police Department officers who encountered him in Cindy Hernden's apartment at 210 S. Catherine St.

"I believe they killed him," said Hernden, 40, a close friend of the Elder family.

"I believe his heart couldn't handle it," Hernden added. "I just figured that Taser was too strong for that small of a kid. He's tiny,and there were three grown police officers.

"They could have subdued him without handcuffs, but they handcuffed him and then Tasered him."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

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