Police taser boy with broken back 19 times

[seamusTX]

A 16-year-old Missouri boy fell 30 feet from a highway overpass and broke his back. When police arrived, they told him to get up and tasered him 19 times when he failed to comply. Police officers said he was aggressive.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/26158674.html

- Jim

[stroo]

Offhand it sounds like the boy may have been using some illegal substance. Still tasing a boy with a broken back 19 times just seems excessive on the face of it.

[KBCraig]

Offhand it sounds like the boy may have been using some illegal substance. Still tasing a boy with a broken back 19 times just seems excessive on the face of it.

Tasing anyone 19 times is excessive. If twice doesn't get the job done, then 3+ isn't going to have any better effect.

[seamusTX]

Offhand it sounds like the boy may have been using some illegal substance.

According to this story: http://www.ky3.com/news/local/25829234.html

They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol.

- Jim

[Penn]

I thought the standard training was to get an uncooperative or potentially dangerous person prone. That is the safest way to handcuff. Telling an uncooperative person to stand up is beyond my comprehension. They're not going to be standing after you tase them anyway.

[NcongruNt]

Offhand it sounds like the boy may have been using some illegal substance. Still tasing a boy with a broken back 19 times just seems excessive on the face of it.

Tasing anyone 19 times is excessive. If twice doesn't get the job done, then 3+ isn't going to have any better effect.

I'm curious as to whether there is dashcam video of this event occurring. As was stated above, there was nothing found in his system, and he'd just fallen off a bridge and broken his back. Given those facts, I have a hard time believing that the events transpired as was described by the officers. I don't see how anyone can be tased that many times for good reason, especially considering the injuries of the kid. On top of that, I wonder if the officers complicated the injury by their actions, especially something as serious as a broken back. I'd also be curious to see the description of the call they were responding to when they arrived. It doesn't seem to me that restraining someone (with a taser or otherwise) is an appropriate response to someone falling from a bridge. Hopefully the internal investigation will bring out more details as to what actually transpired.

[10mmillie]

First of all the media guesstimates on everything so careful what you believe when you read any story. Too many gaps in this guy's story to say the officers were at fault. This guy can't remember how he got under the bridge. Sounds like PCP to me. I have a high pain tolerance and I've been tased and while it was uncomfortable it did not drop me and I wasn't on any drugs, it was part of being trained on them. For him to take 19 5 second rides I'd say he wasn't feeling anything that night.

[WildBill]

This guy can't remember how he got under the bridge.

I agree, the story has enough holes to drive a truck through, but loss of memory is quite common for people who are injured.

[The Annoyed Man]

The guy's blood tested clean. Therefore, his belligerence was most likely the result of a mild head injury sustained in the fall. He fell 30 ft! I'll bet that he was concussed into next week, and his responses were being driven by the lymbic ring, which was in control until he regained full consciousness. Thus, his baser instincts were more manifest.

Belligerent and uncooperative behavior are very common when a patient has taken a severe blow to the noggin. When higher functions are restored, behavior returns to normal.

[NcongruNt]

This guy can't remember how he got under the bridge.

I agree, the story has enough holes to drive a truck through, but loss of memory is quite common for people who are injured.

I got hit by a truck while riding my bicycle when I was 13. I don't have any memory of it happening. I can remember up until 5 minutes before it happened and then when I woke up in the ambulance. I had a broken jaw, gashed legs and knuckles, and a concussion. My guess is that this kid likely suffered a concussion as well, and I find nothing suspicious about a lapse in memory with this type of injury.

[flintknapper]

This guy can't remember how he got under the bridge.

I agree, the story has enough holes to drive a truck through, but loss of memory is quite common for people who are injured.

I got hit by a truck while riding my bicycle when I was 13. I don't have any memory of it happening. I can remember up until 5 minutes before it happened and then when I woke up in the ambulance. I had a broken jaw, gashed legs and knuckles, and a concussion. My guess is that this kid likely suffered a concussion as well, and I find nothing suspicious about a lapse in memory with this type of injury.

This is consistent with what happened to my baby brother when he was struck by a car at age 11. He can only remember seeing the vehicle for a second before impact. After that...he says does not remember anything about the incident.

He was in the hospital for 6 weeks.

We were told that witnesses had to restrain him at the scene until medical help arrived because he was trying to get up and run. He had a huge cut over his eye and a compound fracture of his femur (it was actually sticking out of his leg). He doesn't remember any of that.

[srothstein]

when i read the story, I noticed the police did not say how or when he was tasered. The part about him falling off the bridge and just laying there when told to get up sounds like his story and not the cops.

Anyone care to bet he was tasered while on the bridge and fell as a result of it? There is way more o this story than what this one report has to say.

[flintknapper]

when i read the story, I noticed the police did not say how or when he was tasered. The part about him falling off the bridge and just laying there when told to get up sounds like his story and not the cops.

Anyone care to bet he was tasered while on the bridge and fell as a result of it? There is way more o this story than what this one report has to say.

No question about it.

[KBCraig]

Anyone care to bet he was tasered while on the bridge and fell as a result of it? There is way more o this story than what this one report has to say.

The initial reports quote independent witnesses who saw him walking, and note that he fell before police arrived.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/25829234.html

[Venus Pax]

There are definitely two sides to this story.