Man dies after stunned by a Taser gun

A year-and-a-half ago two Chicago physicians published a paper showing an alarmingly high rate of death among teenagers who were stunned by police’s taser guns. The ensuing furor forced Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International to qualify somewhat the adjective “non-lethal” it used in its advertising to describe its products. It appears that teenagers are not the only ones susceptible to searious harm from stun guns. The latest victim is a man in his 40s who died early Sunday morning after RCMP jolted him with a Taser at the Vancouver International Airport, police said. Airport security called the Mounties for assistance after an unidentified man began pounding on windows and throwing chairs and computer equipment in the customs area shortly after arriving on an international flight at 1:30 a.m. CBC reports that the man appeared to be enraged, pounding on windows and throwing chairs and computer equipment, and refused to calm down. When he ignored orders to calm down, police used a stun gun on the man. The man dropped to the floor and police said it took three officers to handcuff him. He then lost consciousness and appeared to go into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the airport, the CBC’s Chris Brown reported. Few other details have been disclosed other than the man spoke an Eastern European language and a flight from Poland touched down about an hour before the incident.

As we say above, Taser devices are controversial because of the dozen North American deaths resulting from their use. There has been debate about how safe these devices are when dealing with certain kinds of people who are delirious or wound up. Police are investigating and a toxicology report will be done to determine whether there were drugs in the man’s system. They will be interviewing customs officers and flight attendants.