Don't taze my granny!

[GG]

Police Tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe, after her grandson called 911 seeking medical assistance, the woman and her grandson claim in Oklahoma City Federal Court. Though the grandson said, "Don't Taze my granny!" an El Reno police officer told another cop to "Taser her!" and wrote in his police report that he did so because the old woman "took a more aggressive posture in her bed," according to the complaint.
     Lonnie Tinsley claims that he called 911 after he went to check on his grandmother, whom he found in her bed, "connected to a portable oxygen concentrator with a long hose." She is "in marginal health, [and] takes several prescribed medications daily," and "was unable to tell him exactly when she had taken her meds," so, Tinsley says, he called 911 "to ask for an emergency medical technician to come to her apartment to evaluate her."
     In response, "as many as ten El Reno police" officers "pushed their way through the door," according to the complaint.
     The grandma, Lona Varner, "told them to get out of her apartment."
     The remarkable complaint continues: "Instead, the apparent leader of the police [defendant Thomas Duran] instructed another policeman to 'Taser her!' He stated in his report that the 86 year-old plaintiff 'took a more aggressive posture in her bed,' and that he was fearful for his safety and the safety of others.
     "Lonnie Tinsley told them, 'Don't taze my Granny!' to which they responded that they would Taser him; instead, they pulled him out of her apartment, took him down to the floor, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a police car.

Read more:  http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/24/28330.htm

[GG]

And here is the other side of the story......................

El Reno police said they were forced to taser an 86-year-old El Reno woman last week who was threatening to kill herself and threatened officers with a knife.
The incident occurred Dec. 22 at the Elizabeth Place Apartments, 1955 S. Shephard, said Police Chief Ken Brown.
Brown said the woman's grandson telephoned police asking for help for his grandmother, who he said was threatening to overdose on medication. The chief said when officers arrived, they found the woman lying on a bed. He said when the woman saw the officers she ordered them out of her home and told them that she "wanted to die."
Brown said the woman pulled a kitchen knife and told officers "she was in control of her life." Brown said officers then tasered the woman and took the knife.
Brown said the woman was taken to Parkview Hospital where the tasers were removed and she was admitted to a mental health center.

http://www.elrenotribune.com/CatIndex.aspx?pageType=1&id=4000

[patric]

A little more detail; The 911 call indicated that the grandson called for a paramedic, but the lady got upset when an officer showed up instead.  In the department's prepared statement afterward, the officer called for more and more officers, and "feared for the lives" of each as they began to accumulate in the lady's bedroom.

It does seem to have been unnecessarily escalated into violence, from that of a simple paramedic call.
   

EL RENO — Police officers here are being sued for using a Taser last December to subdue a disabled grandmother, then 86, in her apartment bed.

911 call: http://newsok.com/multimedia/video/102895816001

Her grandson pleaded with officers, "Don't taze my Granny!" according to the lawsuit.

"I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else," Lona M. Varner, now 87, told The Oklahoman Thursday.

She and her grandson, Lonnie D. Tinsley, on Monday sued the city of El Reno, officer Thomas Duran, officer Frank Tinga, officer Joseph Sandberg and other unknown police officers.

Varner and Tinsley allege in the federal lawsuit in Oklahoma City that their civil rights were violated. They also allege the city has failed to adequately train and discipline its police officers.

A city attorney, Roger Rinehart, said the city would have no comment. Assistant Police Chief Kevin Wilkerson said, "With the federal lawsuit, we can't make any comment on it right now."

Police have admitted using a Taser to incapacitate the suicidal woman Dec. 22. Officer Duran wrote in a police report she pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to kill him. "I tried talking to Varner and calm her down but nothing would work," he reported.

The officer reported she took "a more aggressive posture on the bed" when other officers arrived. He reported she raised the knife above her head and said, "If you come any closer, you're getting the knife." He reported he feared she would injure someone.

Police went to the apartment Dec. 22 after her grandson called 911 for a paramedic to check on her. "She says ... her life is over. She wants to end it. ... She's taken some medicine. I don't know what she's taken," Tinsley said in the 911 call. "I can't get her to tell me what she took. ... She's kind of upset and everything else."

Varner's attorney, Brian Dell of Oklahoma City, said police acted inappropriately and could have killed her with the Taser shock. He said she was never charged.

He said Varner has had a series of health problems, including strokes. She uses an oxygen machine to help her breathing and can barely walk by herself. She uses an electric cart to get around and can see out of only one eye.

He said she was in a hospital-type bed when she was shocked.

"Even if you reasonably believe someone's going to commit suicide, do you Taser them?" the attorney asked.

He said police ripped the skin of her arms when they grabbed her. "She's an old lady," he said. "Her skin is like tissue paper."

The lawsuit said she was taken first to an El Reno hospital where she was treated for the burns to her chest and the torn flesh on her arms. The lawsuit alleges she was placed on Dec. 23 in the psychiatric ward of an Oklahoma City hospital at the direction of the El Reno police. She was held in the psychiatric ward for six days.

Dell said she had $30,000 in medical bills from the police conduct.

The lawsuit alleges as many as 10 police officers pushed their way into the apartment after the grandson called 911. The police first stepped on her oxygen hose "until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation," and then police fired a Taser at her, striking her with only one prong, according to the lawsuit.

"The police then fired a second Taser, striking her to the right and left of the midline of her upper chest and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain and to pass out," attorneys alleged in the lawsuit. "The police then grabbed Ms. Varner by her forearms and jerked hands together, causing her soft flesh to tear and bleed on her bed; they then handcuffed her."

The grandson also was handcuffed and placed in a police car when he protested police attempts to Taser his grandmother, the attorneys alleged. He was freed to go with his grandmother in an ambulance to the El Reno hospital.

The lawsuit does not mention that Varner had a knife.

In his report, Duran wrote he deployed his Taser first but it did not affect her because one of the two prongs went into a blanket. He wrote, "I told Officer Sandberg who was next to me that my Taser was not working. Officer Sandberg deployed his Taser with both prongs making contact. The Taser rendered Varner incapable of any further aggressive action. Officers were able to remove the knife from Varner's hand and secure it safely."

Duran reported Varner had looked him in the eyes after he arrived at the apartment and said to him, "If you try and get the knife I will stab you and kill you. I killed four Japs in World War II and I would not bat an eye killing you."

Duran also reported, Varner talked of killing police again after being taken to Parkview Hospital in El Reno. "Varner told me she was going to kill every officer that was in her apartment when she got out. Varner told me she was going to snap my neck like a twig just like she did during World War II."

Varner's attorney, Dell, said both Varner and the grandson said she told police to leave her apartment but they deny she threatened to kill officers. They also denied that she talked in the apartment of killing Japanese.

The grandson "said she didn't say anything like that at all at the apartment," the attorney said.

The grandson recalled she did say things at the hospital about having killed Japanese but "there was never any threats to the cops," the attorney said.

Varner was a civilian volunteer on hospital ships in the Pacific during World War II, the attorney said.

Varner was reluctant to discuss her lawsuit. She at first told The Oklahoman, "You can talk to my attorney. Thank you," then hung up.

In a brief follow-up call Thursday, she was asked what she had done in life before retiring. She said, "I did a lot of things." She did not explain further.

Asked if the Taser hurt, she said, "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."

The attorney said Friday that people are offering to contribute to a fund for her. He said the offers began after the lawsuit started getting attention on the Internet.

El Reno police last faced controversy over using a Taser in November 2008 when an uncooperative driver was shocked after a crash. The police chief said later officers had no way of knowing the driver was in diabetic shock. A video of the 2008 incident was widely circulated on the Internet.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-granny-gets-shocked-by-taser-sues-el-reno-police/article/3471297?custom_click=headlines_widget#ixzz0ruv7kdOq

[nathanm]

You'd think that after the first incident, the entire department would have gotten better training on the appropriate use of a Taser.

First off, this lady was 86 years old and bedridden, so one of the officers could easily have held the Taser at the ready in case she decided to get violent but refrained from using it. Secondly, using a taser on someone of that age is a good way to give them a heart attack and kill them. In any event, if it's not appropriate to shoot someone, it's no more appropriate to use a taser on them.

It's not by any means all police officers, but what is with the rash of cowboy cops lately?

[patric]

You'd think that after the first incident, the entire department would have gotten better training on the appropriate use of a Taser.

The dashcam video of the diabetic arrest (and the department whitewashing later) should have been sufficient to indicate a problem that was bound to re-surface.

You can hear the tone of the officer playing up to the camera at 6:29:22 with a "sir, stop resisting" (that sounds more like tryouts for the high school play), to the slipup at the end that contradicts their claim they suspected nothing medical until the ER found his MedicAlert tag:

(6:39:58) "Are you having a diabetic problem or are you having a drunk problem?"

In any case, only the taxpayers are the losers.

[nathanm]

I think if we treated tasings the same way we treated officer involved shootings, it would cut down on taser abuse.

It amazes me how the police in the UK manage to get along just fine without even having guns, yet here we are tasing everything in sight.

[BKDotCom]

We made Boing Boing:
Oklahoma police tase an 86-year-old bedridden grandmother

[sauerkraut]

To flip it around this guy should not be out driving- he could of killed someone. Why didn't he take his shot? I side with the cops on this one, they had no way of knowing it was a medical issue, but on the other hand if the medical issue was that severe the driver never should of had a driver's license in the first place.

[custosnox]

To flip it around this guy should not be out driving- he could of killed someone. Why didn't he take his shot? I side with the cops on this one, they had no way of knowing it was a medical issue, but on the other hand if the medical issue was that severe the driver never should of had a driver's license in the first place.

Kind of like those people with bad hearts shouldn't be driving around either, right?

[Hoss]

Kind of like those people with bad hearts shouldn't be driving around either, right?

Guess a seat at the library opened up finally.

[patric]

I side with the cops on this one, they had no way of knowing it was a medical issue

They knew:
(6:39:58) "Are you having a diabetic problem or are you having a drunk problem?"

[patric]

Another granny Tasered, but this time the department fired the two officers involved:

http://www2.wrbl.com/news/2010/jul/13/stun-gun-video-two-officers-out-after-woman-tased--ar-578842/

Hint: when you torture old ladies for information, dont do it in front of your dashcam.