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Larry Conners: Taser guns 07:26 AM CST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005
St. Louis (KMOV) - More and more police officers are keeping their firearms in their holsters when approaching a defiant suspect. Instead officers in many departments are turning to Taser guns. Taser International in Phoenix says its weapon can reduce injuries to officers, suspects and reduce deadly force. The company claims almost 6,000 police departments have Tasers and more than 100,000 officers use them. Using compressed nitrogen it fires two probes at a speed of about 160 feet per second hitting a suspect with 50,000 volts. When the probes hit anywhere on your body you lose all muscle control. Experts say it feels like getting hit with a lightning bolt through the top of your head. It causes a suspect to freeze on the spot. Police agencies cite hundreds of cases where using a Taser was justified. However, critics point to several instances where they say the weapons were used inappropriately. Examples: Tasers used on a teenager who ran after not paying his $1.25 bus fare. A 71-year-old man who wouldn't get in a patrol car, a pregnant woman already in custody in a police car, a 6-year-old who had a shard of glass and a 78-year-old protesting a parking fine How safe is the Taser? In 80 to 90 cases out of almost 50,000 victims hit with a Taser died, but not immediately. That is a key point for those who say the Taser does not kill. Some officers say if the Taser were to blame, suspects would die immediately from the electric shock. Reportedly, only eight of the documented deaths have been linked to Tasers. Keep in mind; often suspects hit with Tasers are on drugs or drunk. Watch Part 2 of Larry Conners' report on Tuesday night at 10 p.m., then see it again, plus bonus video on KMOV.com . Larry Conners: Taser guns, Part 2 07:50 AM CST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005
St. Louis (KMOV) -- Taser guns, with their boxy shape and yellow and black design, look like toy pistols, however they are anything but child’s play. These super charged weapons are becoming more and more popular with police departments in the St. Louis area and across the country. In Rock Hill, officers scream in pain and drop to the floor when they are shot with the guns. The department shoots its officers as part of their training so that they will know how a Taser feels. Police say that sometimes suspects are so violent that they have to be shocked more than once with Tasers. That is a grave concern for Amnesty International who claims that all of the deaths linked to Tasers involved suspects that had been shocked more than one time. Glendale canine officer William Parks argues that Tasers can save lives. Recently, he had to face a man armed with two butcher knives. The suspect raised the knife; Parks pulled and fired his Taser. The suspect dropped to the ground and a potential life threatening standoff ended with the single shot. The suspect was then taken into custody. You do not have to be a police officer to buy a Taser. The laws are changing, but as of now Missouri, Illinois and 41 other states have few or no restrictions on citizens owning the weapons. You can buy one online, or from this Belleville gun shop for less than $700. Gun shop owners say that they are not about to sell the guns as party gags. They insist they are purely a self-defense item, and will only be sold as such. The civilian Taser will not fire as far as a police Taser, but as one officer told me, he is not about to get into a Taser duel. If you pull a Taser on a police officer, he will pull and likely fire his service revolver. To get a better idea of how if feels to be hit with a Taser we set up a roll playing situation where I was the suspect. Armed with a bat I threatened our police officer armed with a Taser gun. Our officer does not draw his weapon until I make a threat against him. Once I threaten him with a baseball bat his attention is directed at trying to talk me into putting the bat down. The entire time the small red light from the Taser’s laser is aimed directly at my chest. An Abbott EMS crew is standing by, just in case something goes wrong. Normally in training, the Taser can be set on a one second blast, but in a real confrontation the moment that the trigger is pulled the Taser fires for five seconds without stopping. I've asked for the whole ride. It's all acting, but it's about to become very real. Once I take a step toward the man playing the role of the police officer he pulls the trigger. Two tiny razor sharp probes connected to thin wires explode toward me. Before I can react, the probes drill into my chest delivering a staggering 50,000 volts of electricity. I am overcome by excruciating pain; I stiffen like a board and fall to the floor. It feels as if a big bull is goring me over and over. I had planned to continue holding the bat. That didn't happen. Had I held onto the bat and continued the attack, the officer could have continued to fire five-second blasts again and again. One of the barbed probes cut my chest pretty deep. Later I would have a fist sized bruise, some tenderness but nothing lasting. The probes hit me at 160 feet per second. I remember seeing the electric wires snaking at me and then someone was screaming. It was me. Click here to watch Larry Conners’ report Check out Part 1 of Larry Conners' report Related links: Belleville Indoor Shooting Range Larry Conners: A reporter's notebook 10:37 AM CST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005
(KMOV) -- I first pushed this story about a year ago, but management was concerned about my safety. I finally convinced them that I would be fine, but as an added precaution, we did have an Abbott EMS on the scene as I did the shooting at Belleville Indoor Shooting Range. 80-90 victims out of 50,000 Taser cases have died, but based on autopsies, about half a dozen have been allegedly linked to the Taser. In most of the deaths victims had drugs or alcohol in their system or had a history of such abuse. That background was critical to my decision to take a hit. Before I took the hit from the Taser, we did several interviews and shot different scenes just in case I was not capable of doing so after the event. Often, police officers that carry Tasers also take hits during training. Sometimes, they simply have electrodes attached to them; some take the "darts". Often those are fired into the back as additional precaution to not hit the heart directly; there have been some officers complain of injuries after being Tasered. Usually those injuries are related to the fall after they are Tasered. The Phoenix Police Department was the first police force to fully deploy the Tasers and often encouraged officers to see what it was like. To avoid any injuries they no longer Taser officers. When officers do take hits in training, they might take only 1-2 seconds; I asked for the full ride of 5 seconds to get a better understanding of what happens. When the Taser fires ... 2 probes hit you at a speed of 160 feet per second and deliver 50,000 volts. Both probes are fired at the same time, but one drops about 8 degrees below the path of the other. Steven King of Belleville Indoor Shooting Range is a reserve police officer that was willing to shoot me. When role playing, I was armed with a bat. If I had a pistol, an officer is not going to use a Taser; he's going to be forced into lethal action. King said in a real life situation, an officer would fire the Taser if I continued on a path toward him and threatening with the bat. That's what we did in role-playing. I had a plan of what I would do. I told King that when I got up I might attack again with the bat. My plan ended as soon as the probes hit me. When the 5-second blast was over I wasn't even sure where the bat was. I remember seeing the electric cords snaking from the Taser, and then someone was screaming. Uh, it turned out to be me. I've been asked, “Were you acting?” If you've seen some of the video we have from real police Taser events you see criminals dropping and screaming in pain. It was very real. I had no preconception of how I would describe it, but when I got up ... I said it felt as if a bull were goring me over and over. I've never been gored, but for some reason the sharp pain and the deep pressure on my chest and lungs just made me think of such a description. It might not be the description others would use, but it's what came to my mind. (One piece of video we had from Taser International shows a steer being hit by a Taser; he drops to his side, his legs go straight out and for that 5 seconds he can not move.) When I was hit my muscles contracted; every nerve was on fire and relief came only after the Taser stopped. I've been asked if I would do it again. When I did it we had two cameras recording the event because I didn't want a camera glitch to mean that I would have to do it again. To answer the question, if I had to do it again I would but I don't want to do so. I've been in broadcasting since 1962, and I've done thousands of stories ... and there are some that will always stand out. This is one that I will never forget.
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