BED STUY, Brooklyn [AP] — An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.
Inman Morales, 35, fell nearly 10 feet to his death after he was shocked in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, in the confines of the 77th Precinct. He was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy was being performed, but police said he suffered serious head trauma.
Man Falls to Death After NYPD Stun Gun Shock
BED STUY, Brooklyn [AP] — An officer appears to have violated police department guidelines when he used a Taser stun gun on a naked, distraught man teetering on a building ledge, officials said Thursday.
Inman Morales, 35, fell nearly 10 feet to his death after he was shocked in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, in the confines of the 77th Precinct. He was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy was being performed, but police said he suffered serious head trauma.
Officers had radioed for an inflatable bag as the incident unfolded, but it had not yet arrived at the scene when Morales fell.
“None of the … officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so,” said chief department spokesman Paul Browne.
The lieutenant who directed the use of the stun gun was stripped of his gun and badge, and the officer who shocked Morales was placed on desk duty as the investigation continues. Their names were not released.
Witnesses and neighbors said Morales had become distraught and threatened to kill himself Wednesday. His mother called 911. When police arrived midafternoon, he fled naked out the window of his third-floor apartment to the fire escape. He tried unsuccessfully to get into an apartment on the floor above, and then clambered down until he reached a ledge over a shuttered storefront, where he started jabbing at officers with an 8-foot-long fluorescent light.
An amateur video posted on the Web site of the New York Post shows one of the officers raising a Taser at Morales, who freezes and topples over headfirst as the crowd screams.
The man’s death renewed focus on the use of stun guns by the NYPD. Thousands of city police sergeants began carrying Tasers on their belts this year after the department expanded use of the weapons. The pistol-shaped weapons fire barbs up to 35 feet and deliver 50,000-volt shocks to immobilize people.
Browne said the guidelines issued with the expansion in June specifically state that when possible, the stun guns “should not be used … in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface.”
Officers are allowed to use Tasers if they believe emotionally disturbed people are a danger to themselves or to others.
The NYPD receives more than 80,000 calls annually in such circumstances and uses stun guns about 300 times on average. So far this year, stun guns have been used 180 times. No other deaths have been reported.
The department has used Tasers since 1984, but policy previously called for sergeants to store the stun guns in their trunks while patrolling. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the weapon is considered controversial, and some organizations want the weapons banned.
Crown Heights mother
This story has absolutely no place on Crown Heights.info!!! To find out local news such as this, we have newspapers and the radio. I was appalled that the NY Post put in a picture of this guy, with just the bare basics blurred, but absolutely disgusted to see this on Crown Heights.info, from which I would expect better judgment.
nypd - thanks but no thanks!
this is absolutely terrifying. The poor mother of the victim was standing right there asking the NYPD officers to help her “imbalanced” son break his fall, instead the officers, called to help the man, tazed him to death! –
moral: get your neighbors to help ..and don’t ever trust the nypd.
murder by the police
since there is investigations about the murder by the 77 pct .
lets call to ask for investigating the falls charges against the jews that were arrested back in december last year.
lets face it what you see here is a murder by the police.
77 pct is corrupt .
nypd - thanks but no thanks
This is terrifying. The mother of the victim was asking the NYPD police officers to break the fall of her “imbalanced” son. Instead, an officer tazed the man to death while his mother stood right across the street. I definitely do not feel comfortable calling the NYPD for anything non-violent!
dls
What on earth were the officers thinking? If you tase someone they WILL FALL!
Where is Al Sharpton????
everyone should know
yes it does have its place on ch.info
the precint responsible is the same one that protects part of our comunity
the 77 which is the other side of eastern parkway, thank g-d the sargent was stripped of his badge
Big J
This incident occured on Thompkins Ave which is NOT in the confines of the 77 precinct and the others involved are assigned to ESU and NOT the precinct. Carrying on about corrupt cops in the 77 has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Big J
Dear “everyone should know”,
It was a LT NOT a SGT who was placed on modified duty.
You folks really need to get your facts straight.