A sheriff’s deputy in Kansas Tased 91-year-old man with Alzheimer’s disease in his back after he refused to go to the doctor, shocking newly-released body cam footage shows.
The unidentified man broke his wrist while being handcuffed during the wild ordeal — and relatives believe the shock from the electrodes weakened his heart and led to his death two months after the encounter last March, KWCH.com reported.
A 2-minute video of the incident released on LiveLeak.com shows the man repeatedly refusing to comply with orders from deputies from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office to leave his nursing home in Minneapolis on March 30.
“OK Lee, now’s the time that you have to go with us,” one deputy said. “So, why don’t you just go ahead and stand up so we can go.”
The man then apparently makes a comment about being hungry, based on the deputy’s reply.
“OK, that’s fine, you can ear later, but right now, you’re going to go with us,” the deputy continued.
A second deputy then joins the fray, demanding that the elderly patient follow instructions.
“We’re not wanting anybody to get hurt, we’re not wanting anybody to get hit, OK?” the deputy said, while reaching for the man’s hand.
“You don’t want to do that, Lee,” the deputy said after the patient slapped his hand away.
He then gets up from his chair and briskly walks away before one of the deputies abruptly shouts “Taser!” and hits the man in the back with the stun gun.
“Get him cuffed,” one of the deputies said as the elderly man screams on the ground. “Get him cuffed!”
The man was later taken out on a stretcher, according to a longer version of the video posted by the local CBS affiliate.
KWCH.com reported in March that the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating the incident. At the time, authorities said a patient was being combative and refused to comply with deputies, leading to the use of force shown on the video.
A call seeking comment from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office was not immediately returned Friday.
Tasers, according to the manufacturer’s website, have become “nearly ubiquitous” among law enforcement agencies in the United States, where more than 17,800 of 18,250 agencies use them. The stun guns are deployed more than 900 times per day, or roughly every 2 minutes.