The NYPD officer who ordered that a nude, emotionally disturbed man be shot with a Taser causing him to topple off a ledge to his death has been placed on modified duty and stripped of his gun and shield, officials said today.
Top brass at the NYPD ruled that the lieutenant in charge of the Brooklyn situation in which Inman Morales fell 10 feet head first onto the pavement “appears to have violated guidelines” for the use of the device.
An autopsy was inconclusive and required further investigation, the medical examiner’s office said. Police said he suffered serious head trauma.
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“The order to employ the Taser under these circumstances appears to have violated guidelines, re-issued June 4, 2008, which specifically state that “when possible, the [device] should not be used in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement.
The lieutenant has been “placed on modified assignment,” Browne said. The officer who fired the Taser has been placed on administrative duty.
He added that the Brooklyn district attorney’s office has asked that the NYPD not question either officer – leaving open the possibility that criminal charges may be applied later.
The incident occurred yesterday afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant when Morales climbed out of his apartment window, and went on a 40-minute long rant while standing nude on a ledge.
Police had radioed for an inflatable bag to be brought to the scene but chose decided to immobilize him with the Taser before it arrived when he grabbed an 8-foot-long fluorescent bulb.
Browne said no “officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so.”
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.
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.
Post wires services contributed to this report.