14 Year old girl shot with a taser in the head, by an officer!

TUCUMCARI (AP) - TUCUMCARI (AP) - Authorities say a teenage girl is recovering at an Albuquerque hospital after being shot in the head with a Taser dart by Tucumcari's police chief.
Stacy Akin says she and her 14-year-old daughter were arguing over a cell phone Thursday and she drove her daughter to the Tucumcari Police Department to seek help.

While in front of police headquarters, the girl ran off and was later found at a park by Chief Roger Hatcher.

Hatcher says he got out of his vehicle and called to her but she ran in front of his patrol car across a street without looking for traffic.

Hatcher says he tried to catch up to the girl by foot but couldn't and believes he had no other option than to fire a Taser dart to stop her.

I would like to add he's on paid leave.


This was a post I made earlier today that I still stand by 100%
I want to hear other people's comments, agreeing or disagreeing with me, because i think this is sick.



Now personally, I dont have a problem with police, however, this is ridiculous! You don't shoot anyone in the head witha taser! Never mind an innocent 14 year old girl. Yea', I know, I know, he didnt mean it. So what? He shouldn't have tasered a 14 YEAR OLD GIRL to begin with. Really, was she that much of a threat.

Oh, and as for the "She was running across the road." Yada yada... That's bullsh*t! Talk about grabbing straws, damn. I have a younger brother and he use to run across the road, nearly got hit a few times, until we told him not to because it's dangerous and so on. We resolved the issue without a taser. I think an informative explanation afterwards would've sufficed, dont you?

Someone in a thread earlier said: "You try aiming while running, see how well you do." Apparently they're aware of the whole situation, hence the comment.

Ok, there're two things wrong with that, I plan to address them here...

Firstly, don't be a dumbass. If you can't aim properly and run, in a safe sensible way, don't! You shouldn't be doing something you're not trained to do, or situations like this occur!

Secondly, she's 14! hell, she still has breast milk around her mouth, she's just a baby. Chances are, if she's running it's out of fear, she's not running to buy a gun to fire back, she's not going to lead you into a gang of warlords and I'm sure as hell, she's not going to take flight.

It kind of has the same principals as a shop/till worker robbery. If someone holds you up, you give them the money because it's not worth your life. The graveyard's full of heroes.

If a girl runs from you and you can't catch her, knowing fully well she's not a threat, let her go and then you can report her location and so on. You've done your job the best you can, given the circumstances, the world needs more people like you. The prison's full of glory hogs.

He would have had a reasonable amount of information about her on his radio, or by mouth from another officer. He had enough knowledge to be able to identify her, whether he saw her run or not, he would have had to been told if she was dangerous. An officer can't possibly chase a guy if they think the guy has a gun or something, you know?

If she was a danger to herself, even though I highly doubt it, police are trained to take a step back. They're taught and expected to do this, regardless of whether or not it's a car chase or on foot. If some kind of danger can come to anybody, while that officer is the instigator, he is fully responsible.

Now, let's hope this officer doesn't get given a gun in the future.
She could suffer greatly, die or have a terible memory with a bad headache for a few days. Let's hope it's the latter.

To the girl involved, I wish you well.
To the officer here, I wish you hell.


Reklaw

reply to post by Reklaw


LOL, can I ask why this was posted in the UFO forum? Accident maybe?


EDIT since this thread has been moved now,lol...


As far as the case, well it appears the action may have been warranted, although maybe some other body part than the head would be more acceptable?

[edit on 7/10/2009 by jkrog08]

[edit on 7/10/2009 by jkrog08]

reply to post by Reklaw


Edit for the move.....

Tasers are used far to much on nonviolent people. But anything that happens in Tucumcari dosen't suprise me. I've been there!!








[edit on 10-7-2009 by whaaa]

OK, I comment in a lot of these police threads, but I'm going to play Devil's advocate this time.

If this teenage girl was arguing with her mother this aggressively (she drove her to the police station!), and then she disobeyed the police, ran away, ran into traffic, blah blah........I think the officer showed considerable restraint in the tazering.

I for one, would have caught her and turned her over my knee on the side of the road with all the traffic watching!

Tazers are overly used, but spankings are drastically lacking. The officer won't get in much trouble for the action he took, but I would have been fired or sued if I witnessed this atrocity of child-rearing!

The police chief should be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license... On a psychiatric unit electric convulsive therapy is administered under the supervisision of a psychiatrist and the patient is anesthetized.

Maybe he has bad aim?

Tazers shouldn't be used like this period. As I understand it they should only be used as an alternative to lethal force.

and what does the cop get for being an asshole? A vacation! WTF?!

How do we stop this?

You folks are just a little misinformed on the Taser. The Taser shoots two darts attached to thin wires. The Taser Dart on top will, for the most part, shoot straight, and the bottom dart, will ark down so many inches, per foot as it flies out. This is to get a decent amount of spacing between the two probes so that it has a better effect on the muscle system. The Max distance an LEO Taser will fly is 21 feet. This chief was probably running after the girl when he decided to use his Taser, hence the one prob striking her in head. If you have ever tried to shoot while running, and or after running it is extremely difficult to be on taget with your shot. Now if he can articulate that she presented a danger to herself and could not catch up with her then the Taser usage will probably justified. I've seen some pretty fast 14 yr olds in my line of work.

..... The cop probably justified this to himself after the incident by thinking .... " serves her right, ..... going around parading her head like that"

... then his thought process was promptly abrupted by an incoming donut.

[edit on 10-7-2009 by IntastellaBurst]

cops are cool like that, cool like that, cool like that, cool like that

Not, but they sure do get away with a lot of bull#.

Tasers are only to be used in a situation where using a gun would be needed, that is all. #ing pigs.

Oh yeah, I like how he gets a nice little paid vacation, that sure is nice. Hope someone goes to his house and #s his # up.

reply to post by skyeyes


I know what you're trying to say, but police are trained and expected to back off in them situations. If a car is being chased and is driving on the wrong side of the road, they're told to back off, give them room, even if it means escape(of course avoid it) and it's the same with people.

It's besides the point anyway.
You can not taser a 14 year old girl.
14! She's a child, can she even spell child?

Yea', I understand she may have been arguing with her mother, but at 14 she doesnt deserve to be shot in the head. He's a dumb ass for shooting and running. He should be thrown in jail.

No one can justify this action in any way, shape or form.

I mean 14, think about that age, think about what you knew about police at that age. Think about the fear she must have felt as she was running, thinking she was going to go to jail. The media portrays jail as a death sentence, these days. It's to stop kids committing crimes. She was a scared, little girl, as aposed to him, who was a glory seeking older man. "Oh, I'm amazing because I can shoot a kid with a taser from a distance."

We all know that's why he done it.

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
cops are cool like that, cool like that, cool like that, cool like that

Not, but they sure do get away with a lot of bull#.

Tasers are only to be used in a situation where using a gun would be needed, that is all. #ing pigs.

Oh yeah, I like how he gets a nice little paid vacation, that sure is nice. Hope someone goes to his house and #s his # up.

reply to post by Reklaw


Why don't you wait until the final investigation is done. Isn't it supposed to be-innocent until proven guilty? Yhea, there are some bad cops out there, but lets not judge everyone based upon one bad cop or one poor judgement call.

Tasers are only to be used in a situation where using a gun would be needed, that is all. #ing pigs.

reply to post by Deus Ex Machina 42


You have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about.

reply to post by Reklaw


Well, she's fourteen not four, No It's not a good habit to get into tasing Juveniles. But like I said before, the OP posted very little about the incident. None of us were there. The article is very broad, and not to informative. I would like to know the whole story before I make a judgment call.

You cant even quote correctly, and yeah, I do know what I'm talking about. Tasers were given to police to take the place of guns, pretty much, and to be only used in life or death situations or in situations where they would otherwise have to use their gun.

Keep allowing your rights to be abused.

reply to post by skyeyes


Actually in the UK it's guilty until proven innocent.
I believe in the fact that not all police are the same, always have.
This doesn't mean that this guy didn't make a stupid call, which will possibly ruin a 14 year old girl's life, because, I think that's evident.


Oh, and while I can say this, I dont think I need to know more about the story, being honest, people...

Police chief, chase, 14 year old 'child', taser in head, ICU, paid administrator's leave. pissible brain damage.

I stand by my earlier statement.

No one can justify this mans action in any way, shape or form.

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
You cant even quote correctly, and yeah, I do know what I'm talking about. Tasers were given to police to take the place of guns, pretty much, and to be only used in life or death situations or in situations where they would otherwise have to use their gun.

Keep allowing your rights to be abused.

That's very true, the life or death situation usage.
I highly doubt she was in life threatening danger.

It's a case of, I can't catch this girl, I'll need to stop her just because she's helpless and a child. How can she escape a veteran like me?