Wrongful Death Lawsuit to be Filed over Death of Tasered Man in Georgia

The tactics of police departments have been in the news in recent weeks after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and the subsequent riots in the city.

But guns are not the only deadly weapon in the hands of police. Recently a 24-year-old man died in Georgia after two police officers discharged their Tasers into him.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on comments by the attorney for the dead man’s family that two former East Point police officers may have discharged their Tasers twice as many times into Gregory Lewis Towns Jr., than they reported in official documents.

The family’s lawyer claims Towns was hit at least 14 times from Tasers – as opposed to the six times documented in police reports.

“While the medical examiners have said Towns’ death was a homicide, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is still waiting on evidence before decided if he will present the matter to a grand jury for possible criminal charges,” reported the AJC.

A wrongful death lawsuit is set to be filed in this tragic case that led to the death of the young man who was handcuffed at the time, according to reports.

The AJC reported that the medical examiner wrote in his report that “physical exertion and conducted electrical stimulation” contributed to the death. The report said Towns was overweight, hypertensive and had sickle cell trait.

The April 11, 2014 incident unfolded when Towns’ girlfriend called police to the townhouse where she lived with their son. She reported a domestic dispute.

Tasers are meant to be safer alternatives to guns that stun people who the police are seeking to arrest. However, opponents point to hundreds of deaths from Tasers in the United States. A list of Taser deaths compiled by opponents suggest more than 530 people have died after Tasers were used on them, since 2001.

According to Electronic Village, at least 77 of the victims who died after tasering (76 men and a 62-year-old woman) were African Americans. “Black people are only13.6 percent of the total population, yet 41 percent of the 2009-2013 taser-related deaths in America are Black people,” the report stated.

An Amnesty International report stated: “Most of those who died after being struck with a Taser were not armed and did not appear to pose a serious threat when the Taser was deployed.”

Although there are currently efforts at a national level to set up guidelines regulating the use of Tasers, policies remain arbitrary and created by individual jurisdictions. Each police department revises their policies on a continuing basis.

An NBC news article quoted Dr. Douglas Zipes, a cardiologist and electro-physiologist at Indiana University, who said the Taser weapon’s connection to heart attacks is “obvious.”

He has testified for a number of plaintiffs in Taser death lawsuits against law enforcement agencies and written articles on their danger.

“It’s obvious to me that Taser electric shocks can make the heart stop,” Zipes said in the report. He said a tasered person’s heart can race from 400 to 600 beats a minute and send them into cardiac arrest.

The Taser is not the only weapon used by police in Georgia that has caused injury or death and provoked an outcry. Earlier this year a baby was seriously burned in Habersham County after police used a stun grenade.

The effect of a Taser will be exacerbated if it is used multiple times as appears to have been the case in Fulton County. If you lose a loved one due to heavy handed police tactics or if you are injured, call The Keener Law Firm for a free con­fi­den­tial con­sul­ta­tion at 770–955‑3000.