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The Texas Civil Rights Project just announced
that this year’s banquet speaker will be the real life hero of Hotel
Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, who transformed his hotel into life-saving
shelter during an infamous season of genocide.

By Greg Moses

IndyMedia Austin

As details of the Austin case are still being
puzzled together by press and police officials, local activists said at
a press conference Tuesday afternoon that tasers are dangerous enough
to be taken out of service pending further review.

[Wednesday’s
Statesman reports that 33-year-old Michael Clark was shocked multiple
times after being pepper sprayed during a struggle involving nine
police officers. Family members told the Statesman that Clark was using
crutches after a leg injury Sunday]

Austin Dullnig of the
Texas Civil Liberties Union questioned police use of lethal force in
two recent incidents: the fatal shooting of "130 pound 18-year-old"
Daniel Rocha who was allegedly resisting arrest in June during a
traffic stop/drug bust; and now the death of a 30-something African
American male who allegedly struggled with nine police officers who
were called to the scene of a fight between the man and a woman. Police
have been slow to post an official version of Monday’s Taser associated
death. As of midnight Tuesday, no press releases mentioning the
incident appear at the department’s official web site.

Although
Austin Police Chief Stan Knee has been widely quoted saying that
Monday’s death was, "the first time someone has died in custody after
being Tased," activists point to the case of Abel Ortega Perez who "was
tased several times and later died". The Austin Chronicle reports that
the official cause of death for Mr. Perez was "accidental overdose".
The American-Statesman reports that police say Perez also had a
superficial head wound prior to the burglary he was arrested for
committing. Could the head wound prove to be the official cause of
death? Statesman reporter Joshunda Sanders writes that the final
autopsy (for the June 2004 case?) was still unavailable Monday night.
Sanders attended Tuesday’s press conference outside police headquarters
(see press release below).

The Perez case went unreported in
the press for more than a year, until local activists noticed a taser
associated death in a routine statistical report. The Chronicle
mentioned the case in August when reporting on an admission by Taser
International, Inc. that "repeated, prolonged and/or continuous
exposure to the Taser may cause strong muscle contractions that may
impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the [weapon’s
metal] probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm."

‘When
Taser International admits their product is lethal, then you know you
have a problem," said Debbie Russell at Tuesday’s press conference.

Try
"dies taser" on your favorite search engine. Try "dies taser" on your
favorite search engine under news. In California, South Carolina,
Nashville, and now in Austin, four people died this past week following
taser attacks. In late August, men died in Ohio and Florida following
taser attacks. In the Florida and South Carolina cases, reports say the
victim was stunned twice. In Nashville it was "multiple times" by as
many as 11 officers.

Said Victoria of the Austin Spokescouncil,
"The public perception of Tasers is that they save lives. But they are
not only immoral, they are potentially deadly."

Tasers were
originally billed as weapons to be used instead of guns, but the weapon
has taken on a life of its own. Taser use went up from 66 to 334 from
2003 to 2004 says the Statesman. TCLU’s Dullnig said at the press
conference that of 334 Taser uses reported by the Austin Police
Department in 2004, only five were said to have replaced use of guns.
Police are claiming that injuries to suspects and police have gone down
as a result of taser deployment, but it’s not clear from web sources
whether being stunned is being itself counted as an injury under usual
circumstances.

Spencer Crowl of ownside.org
said, "Considering that the Taser is the second line of defense, I
would be shocked if APD came out and said they would have needed to use
guns 300-350 times."

Amnesty International also worries,
"that US police agencies are deploying tasers as a routine force option
to subdue non-compliant or disturbed individuals who do not pose a
serious danger to themselves or others." But Amnesty also worries that
sometimes, "the use of electro-shock weapons appears to have violated
international standards prohibiting torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment as well as standards set out under the United
Nations (UN) Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement
Officials."

As Chief Knee told the Statesman, "use of the Taser
during the arrest was in line with department policy, which allows use
of a Taser whenever a suspect actively resists arrest."

—–
For immediate release – Sept. 27, 2005
Contact: Debbie Russell: (512) 573-6194 "The Taser Hotline"

MORATORIUM on TASERS NOW!!!!
Austin Police Department must stop targeting the people of southeast Austin!

PRESS CONFERENCE: 5pm today: APD Headquarters, 8th and I-35

Yesterday,
a person of color died approximately an hour after being “Tasered” by
APD. According to the Statesman, there were 5 officers present to
subdue the one reportedly uncooperative suspect. Given these odds, the
police should have been able to subdue a single individual without
having to use the second most deadly weapon in their arsenal. Instead,
they used a lethal weapon on a single unarmed and outmanned suspect,
and ended up killing him, as in the shooting of Daniel Rocha that
occurred not 4 months ago. Contrary to statements by Chief Knee, such
exaggerated use of force is not in accordance with APD policy, which
calls for the “least amount of force necessary” to resolve a conflict.

Now that more and more medical examiners nationwide are ruling that
Tasers are a contributing cause, and in some cases, the primary cause,
of deaths; since some segments of the law enforcement community are
coming out AGAINST the weapon such as 2 divisions of the Department of
Homeland Security having dsallowed their use and a national law
enforcement-based class action suit against Taser, Int. has been
brought forth – accusing the company of misleading the law enforcement
community and the public in terms of safety; since the SEC is now fully
investigating Taser Int., (after earlier this year announcing an
inquiry into the safety of the product); and while TASER, INT.
themselves admit they are lethal,* there is no logical reason to
continue to use these poorly-designed and potentially lethal tools on
the streets.

While the City of Austin’s Human Rights Commission
is hard at work on improving policy and oversight regarding the use of
these lethal weapons, the City must act today by placing a moratorium
on Taser use until further studies have been conducted and APD use of
force policies and procedures have been further examined and revised.
It is too late to help the second victim in Austin of Taser abuse by
the APD, but we can prevent further deaths! We must implement an
IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM on their use in Austin!

—
Christian
Hartwig, a very recent APD Taser victim, will be on hand to relay his
story about how policy was broken when police on 6th St. repeatedly and
simultaneously tasered him as a means to resolve a conflict that was no
longer even taking place.
—

*From a June 28 memo:
"repeated, prolonged and/or continuous exposure to the Taser may cause
strong muscle contractions that may impair breathin

g and respiration,
particularly when the [weapon’s metal] probes are placed across the
chest or diaphragm…[which] may lead to death.” This is the first
admittance that the weapon is, in fact, NOT non-lethal. This came out,
certainly without coincidence, on the same day that the first medical
examiner in the nation (in Chicago) ruled a Taser as the primary cause
of death.

Links related to above info:
http://www.newsinferno.com/storypages/8-23-2005~001.html
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0927Taser27-ON.html
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=business&story_id=092605d1_taser

As we are waiting, [Y] said a brown suburban had pulled up and [X] had
come out and went up to the brown suburban and was making the
deal. Both the brown suburban and the [description withheld by
editor] truck leave [X’s] house. We were waiting for [Y] to call
the deal but we missed the take down. Sgt. Doyle follows the
brown suburban and [A & B] follow the [description withheld by
editor] truck. The suburban goes south on Bluff Springs to
Quicksilver. [Y] had given the license plate on the
suburban. The plate comes back to an address on Vinehill.
We were thinking it was the same people from the Honeybee area.
We knew Sgt. Doyle was already following the suburban so we were going
to intercept the vehicle by going down south on on Pleasant Valley to
Quicksilver. [Y] came up on the radio and asked if we had written
the license plate down and I had written the license plate on my hand
and Michelle was running it on the computer.

I make a right on Quicksilver from S. Pleasant Valley and at the same
time Sgt. Doyle is on the radio and he said he had not made a stop on
the vehicle. I see the suburban and Sgt. Doyle is in his white unmarked
vehicle behind the suburban. I backed my car up and saw them come
to the stop sign. I told Michelle I was making the stop. I
decided to come in diagonally on them. My intention was not to
block them but to make it as safe as possible to make the stop. I
hit my emergency red and blue dash lights. Michelle was getting
out of the car and at the same time I used my spotlight and lit up the
inside of the car. I saw four people in the suburban. One
driver, one front seat passenger, one left rear passenger and one right
rear passenger. The right rear passenger got out and jumped a
privacy fence. I had yelled "[C name withheld by editor]" to the
guy that scaled the fence. I knew I had no chance of catching him
but yelled this anyway to let him know I knew who he was. I don’t
know if this other guy was [C]. I heard Michelle say, "Rocha,
Rocha stay in the car." The spot light was lighting through the
car and I immediately recognized Daniel Rocha. Rocha was in the
second row. He had scooted over near the right rear passenger
seat. He had been sitting across from the guy who fled. I
knew who he was because we had been looking for him and I knew he had a
theft from person warrant. I had spoken to [D name withheld by
editor] and the case was about Rocha taking a ladies wallet from her
possession at a McDonald’s. I knew there was a get away car
involved in the theft from person case but I don’t remember what kind
of car it was. I had no information that Rocha was associated
with the suburban that we just stopped. Michelle had gone to the
driver’s side but I was completely focused on Rocha. I don’t know
what happened to the front passenger.

I went to the rear passenger door. The stop sign is behind me and
there is a curb in between the suburban and the sidewalk. I’m
pretty sure I open the rear passenger door. I’m thinking I need
to contain him inside the vehicle because I don’t want him to fight and
run. I’m trying to keep him in the suburban. Both my hands
are empty. I usually carry a small flashlight in the cargo pocket
of my pants. I had opened the door and was leaning inside the
vehicle. He had scooted to the spot nearly behind the front
passenger seat. There is no doubt in my mind that he knew I was a
cop and no doubt in my mind that he knew I knew who he was. I
don’t remember exactly what I was telling him. I said his name a
couple of times. I think I told him he had a warrant. I
went to feel his body, initially he was relaxed and cooperating and he
was raising his hands and asking me what was going on, he was also
moving into me and toward the door. I was definitely blocking the
door. All of a sudden he tenses up and then he lunged at
me. The fight is on. He was grabbing at my chest and
body. He is using his force to try to get past me. He was
doing everything he could to get past me by muscling me. I wear a
police vest that has POLICE on the right upper chest area. There
are two velcro pockets on the front of the vest. In my right
pocket I have my taser that is Velcro’s in and in the left pocket I had
my badge pinned to the outside and a blue folding knife in it.
Rocha had his hands up near my head and upper body when he tensed up
and started fighting. The fight was happening while still inside
the vehicle. I’m trying to keep him in the vehicle and he
overpowered me and he got his legs out first. He spins out toward
the rear of the suburban as I’m still trying to hold onto him. I
saw Sgt. Doyle run up from the rear and grab Rocha’s back or right
side. Sgt. Was on the opposite side I was on. Rocha was
fighting very hard. Sgt. was trying to get control of Rocha’s
torso while I was trying to get control of body too. My back was
to the suburban and both Sgt and I were trying to get Rocha onto the
ground. It’s been my experience that if we could get him to the
ground it was to our advantage to get the person handcuffed.
Rocha and I are on the ground and we are fully engaged in a
fight. I was on my knees and I have bruises. By this time,
Sgt. Doyle was no longer engaged with Rocha. I think Sgt. Fell
and ended up to the far left of where Rocha and I were. I would
describe it as a fight and wrestling match. His arms are on the
inside of me and I could feel him grabbing at my vest and waist.
He [w]as in my upper body and arms. There was no time to get the
handcuffs out or anything else because we were fighting so hard.
I remeber thinking two of us can’t even get this guy to the ground and
we were fighting so hard with him.

Sgt. Doyle was off to the side. Rocha’s body comes off me and
lunges toward Sgt. Doyle. I’m pawing at my vest to look for my
taser I was still on my knees as I was looking for my taser. I
was looking for it to use on Rocha. Rocha’s body was off to my
left side but now he was on top of my boss. I could see Sgt.
Doyle and Rocha fighting. Sgt. Doyle had on blue jeans, dark
shirt and police raid vest. I think Sgt. Was tilted back or on
his side. I couldn’t see Sgt. Face. He was to the left of
Rocha. I was scared for my life and for my boss’ life. I
was worried about Rocha using my taser and using it on my boss and
taking his gun. I have been in a number of fights before and
never have I felt this scared and afraid. I was focued on Rocha’s
white shirt. I felt for my taser and it was gone, I couldn’t see
Rocha’s hands as he was fighting with Sgt. Doyle. Instinctively I
grabbed for my gun and shot him once. I think I shot him in the
back left shoulder. I only shot him once. Self-preservation
took over.

I yelled to Sgt. "I shot him, I shot him." Sgt. Went to Rocha and
turned him over. When I shot him, Rocha lunged forward and then
fell. Rocha was face down. Sgt. rolls Rocha over and said
something to him. Sgt. got on the radio and called for
assistance. I walked around and ripped my vest off and laid it on
the trunk of my car. I put the gun on the trunk of my car and I
don’t remember re-holstering my gun. I remember feeling for my
gun and couldn’t find it and later [Y] told me it was in the front seat
of my car. I remember seeing my gun on the driver’s seat of my
car. I don’t remember if an officer came up and took the gun from
me. They must have taken it off the trunk of the car. I
remember putting it on the trunk and just remember wanting to put it
down.

Very quickly everyone was there…..

Signed and notarized June 10, 2005

Probable body positions:

Probable body positions for the deceased include down on one or both knees or bent over at the waist.

Probable body positions for the shooter include standing or kneeling to the left front side of the deceased.

Additional movement of the shooter is possible if the arm is bent instead of straight out.

TBI, LLC A Forensic Education & Consulting Company (Norman OK)