Video Supports Taser Lawsuit: Preston Bussey III (Rockledge, FL)

Preston Bussey was unarmed. He was at the Wuesthoff Medical Center emergency room where he voluntarily sought treatment. That didn't matter to Rockledge Police Department officers who electrocuted him at least six times in 2009. You can see the video of this unarmed man in the moments before his untimely taser-related death.





Surveillance camera footage reveals an unarmed Bussey pulling away from police officers who did not tell him they intended to take him into custody. Police enter the hospital with Tasers raised and aimed at the patient. Bussey backs away and then follows instructions to get to his knees. The video shows the officers aiming their Tasers at his back and chest and then shooting Bussey multiple times when he steps away.


The excessive force used by these police officers resulted in the death of Preston Bussey. The lawsuit filed by the family is in the judicial pipeline.

Preston Bussey III

It seems obvious that Bussey did not harm anyone, commit a crime, possess a weapon or threaten anyone with aggression. Yet, the police treated him like an armed and dangerous violent criminal, and used unjustified, unnecessary, unreasonable and excessive force to detain him.

The lawsuit indicates that Defendants Sgt. Timothy Hewitt, Cpl. Yvette Gomez, and Officers Patrick Kennedy, Timothy Herberner, Don Williams, Robert Owens and Matthew Leverich together and individually battered, tasered and suffocated unarmed Bussey with a pillow case. The medical examiner concluded that the officers shot Bussey with a stun gun six times -- more than twice the limit set by Rockledge Police Department policy.

This blog continues to track the taser-related deaths of American citizens ... the vast majority of them UNARMED.