By: Matt Nodge
ctvedmonton.ca
Man struck by taser dies in hospital
A man struck by an Edmonton police taser is dead, two days after being sent to hospital in a coma.
Family member’s confirmed Saturday that 34-year old Jeff Oatway succumbed to his injuries Friday in an Edmonton hospital.
Police said Oatway had to be subdued with the electronic stun gun after getting involved in what they called a “massive struggle” at police headquarters on Wednesday.
Oatway’s mother said her son struggled with mental health issues and was not always able to get the help that he needed.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which reports to the province’s Solicitor General, is investigating the tasering incident.
“We’ll try and understand what was going on in the affected person’s life, in the moments, hours, and days leading up to the incident,” Clif Purvis, the agency’s civilian executive director, told CTV News.
Tasers have been linked to the deaths of more than 25 people in the country, but the company that makes them maintains they are a safe form of incapacitating police suspects, and says they have never been proven to have directly caused a death in Canada.
I’m all for that idea. Police can’t carry a gun unless they are isesud a carry permit under the same rules that non-police can be isesud one. And at the end of a year the statistics are plotted. If the ratio of civilians who applied and were granted carry permits is lower then the ratio of police who applied and were granted carry permits, the police permits are taken away starting with the highest ranks and moving downward until the ratios are in balance, heh, heh, heh.
“We’ll try and understand what was going on in the affected person’s life, in the moments, hours, and days leading up to the incident,”…..
How about doing a criminal investigation into police wrong doing and what was going on in the infected cop’s life.
“…the company that makes them maintains they are a safe form of incapacitating suspects, and says they have never been proven to have directly caused a death….
I say that if it is the case that they are safe then the owner of the corporation that manufactures the weapon should have no difficulty in volunteering for long term studies do see if any deaths occur!
“We’ll try and understand what was going on in the affected person’s life, in the moments, hours, and days leading up to the incident,” What the eff does that have to do with anything? Are they going to say this individual would have died with or without being tased? Get real.
We need to have these stun guns removed from the hands of the police. They obviously are over eager to use them and they’re killing a lot of people with them.