21-year old Baron “Scooter” Pikes tased 9 times, dies

STEVEN D:

A 21 year old black man in Winnfield, Louisiana, named Baron "Scooter" Pikes, was tasered 9 times in 14 minutes by a white police officer in January after he was arrested and handcuffed. He died. Seems a tad excessive to me. However, here's the story of his arrest and subsequent death according to the police report by the arresting officers: 

[Police Officer] Nugent spotted Pikes walking along the street and attempted to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for drug possession, according to Police Chief Johnny Ray Carpenter. Pikes took off running, but another officer cornered him outside a nearby grocery store. Pikes resisted arrest and Nugent subdued him with a shock from a Taser.

Then on the way to the police station, Carpenter told the newspaper, Pikes fell ill and told the officers he suffered from asthma and was high on crack cocaine and PCP. The officers called for an ambulance, but Pikes later died at the hospital.

So Mr. Pikes was high on PCP, crack cocaine and had a serious asthma condition? That poor man was seriously messed up if he smoked crack and took PCP with an existing asthma condition. The again, perhaps we should take a look at what the subsequent autopsy report by the Parish Coroner found: 

An autopsy determined there were no drugs in Pikes' system and that he did not have asthma, according to Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner.

Gee, that doesn't exactly corroborate the police account of what happened to poor Mr. Pikes, now does it. But what about the resisting arrest part? Aren't police entitled to use appropriate force when someone is violently resisting arrest? What horrible acts did that allegedly drug crazed Mr. Pikes do to require these multiple taser shocks? Well, here's what Officer Nugent, the individual who administered the multiple taserings of Mr Pikes, said about that: 

Moreover, Pikes did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed while lying on the ground, according to Nugent's police report of the incident. It was only after Pikes refused Nugent's command to stand up that the officer applied the first Taser shock in the middle of his back, Nugent wrote.

Several more Taser shocks followed quickly, Nugent stated, because Pikes kept falling down and refusing to get back up. Grocery shoppers who witnessed the incident later told Pikes' family that he had pleaded with Nugent: "Please, you all got me. Please don't Tase me again."

So he deserved multiple taserings because he didn't stand up fast enough, and then after each taser shock he was unable to get up off the ground fast enough to please this Officer Nugent? Wow. That's one dangerous man, lying on the ground writhing in pain, literally begging Officer Nugent to stop tasering him.  READ IT ALL

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LATEST A Louisiana grand jury will decide whether a fired police officer should face criminal charges in the January death of a man who was Tasered nine times while handcuffed, the parish's district attorney announced Monday.

UPDATED 7.31.08