Stephen Palmer, 47, was in his own home when unidentified Stamford police officers rolled into his home and killed him with 50,000 volts of electricity from their taser gun. [SOURCE]At 11:05 a.m. Wednesday, case workers from the Franklin S. DuBois Center, a state-run mental health treatment center on Summer Street, called police after dealing with Palmer, a patient who allegedly threatened his roommate and Dubois Center doctors, who had gone to his residence.
Officers responded to the home and Palmer let them inside, only to attack them moments later, the Stamford Police Department said in a statement. He disobeyed officers and became
aggressive toward them, so they used pepper spray on him, which proved ineffective.An unidentified and impatient Stamford officer then shocked Palmer with a taser gun. Officers were able to handcuff Palmer, but he went into medical distress soon afterward, state police said in a statement. Stamford police said Palmer seemed to have trouble breathing.
Paramedics tried to help Palmer at the scene. He was transported to Stamford Hospital and pronounced dead a short time late. The five Stamford officers injured in the incident were treated and released.
"It is a sad day for us all," Assistant Chief Robert Nivakoff said in a statement. "I feel very confident that the officers involved properly followed the department's continuum of force procedure and this will be evident at the conclusion of the state's investigation."Villagers, why can't five police officers subdue a single man? It appears that a police officer used his taser gun as a convenience rather than out of substantial threat on his own safety. 2009 was the deadliest year on record taser-related police killing. Will 2010 be any different?
