El Reno, Oklahoma police are under criticism this week due to a case alleging that officers tasered a bedridden 86-year-old woman, Lona Vernon. Officer Thomas Duran said he ordered his colleagues to hit the old lady with 50,000 volts after she took a “more aggressive posture in bed.”
Lonnie Tinsley had called for medical assistance out of concern that she might have taken too much of her medication. Instead, nearly a dozen armed officers came into the house and found the elderly lady in a hospital bed tethered to an oxygen tank. Lonnie said that he begged the officers “don’t taze my Granny.” He ordered them to leave.
After the first taser, Lona reportedly pulled a knife from under her pillow and was hit again. They then dragged her out of her bed and handcuffed her.
The lawsuit alleges that one of the officers actually “stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation.”
Police took Lona to a psychiatric ward where she was held for days.
The lawsuit alleges wrongful arrest, assault, battery and emotional distress. Here is the complaint.
Source: Metro
I thought tasering a 12 year old grade school girl due to her “threatening position” was as low as it gets. Are these police afraid to touch anyone not convulsing and stunned?
Guess the TEN officers were hoping for a nice easy warrantless drug bust due to the overdose help request.
didn’t we just read about this? son called 911 because grandma had taken lots of pills trying to end it all? These cops sound more like like those nazi vampires that the signs in Colorado warned us about….
vampires are nasty
This link may provide some additional information:
Suggesting maybe grandma was suicidal? And the grandson called because of a suspected overdose. No oxygen tank on the premises. So no officers deliberately standing on an O2 supply hose.
(Which sounds like a Clint Eastwood Hollywood cop tactic.)
http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/2541950/posts#comment
Paraphrasing mespo, “The facts will come out in front of a judge.”
Is it possible for a taser to spark and set off an oxygen tank explosion?
Could you just imagine how deadly this situation would have become if tasers hadn’t come along? Many 86 year old women are terrifying. That old lady, trying to look helpless & weak with her oxygen tank, was seeping with a knife! It sounds like she needed to be taken down … and fast.
She had a knife under her pillow. How likely is that? Just like the gun conveniently dropped when the cops shoot someone, so they can claim the victim was armed.
A more aggressive posture in bed? These guys are afraid of an 86 year old woman who’s hooked up to oxygen? Even if she’d pulled a machete from under her pillow, they could have restrained her physically. Heck, even I could have restrained her physically.
I have on occasion asked my beautiful spouse to take a more aggressive posture in bed, but she invariably reclines.
This is as crazy as it sounds.
mespo,
As has been stated Cops are showing up at any 911 call. They usually precede the actual emergency responders. They just walk in and assume control.
““more aggressive posture in bed.” Really!!
Why would ten officers show up in response to an ambulance call? I think we need a lot more information.