The initial call was for a wrong way driver. Police followed Pierre Abernathy, the driver, all the way to his mother's house.
“Once the driver was out of the car officers attempted to handcuff him. They got one handcuff on and then he started to resist. Then he broke free,” according Police Chief Bill McManus.
Four officers tried to make the arrest. But Chief McManus says, at about 6’2 and weighing more than 200 pounds, Abernathy was too much for them. McManus explained a taser was used to try and subdue the man; but that didn't work. That’s when police tried to use a K-9 dog to take Abernathy down.
Abernathy's family watched all of this go down from just feet away. Lee Griffin, Pierre’s brother, says his entire family was screaming at the officers that Pierre was a paranoid schizophrenic and was begging them to stop.
"He was already on the ground and they continually tased him while he was already on the ground, laying motionless,” Griffin remembers. “He wasn't saying anything. He wasn't responding and they killed my brother right in front of me."While the department investigates, the four officers involved are on administrative duty.
“That was over, over, overly excessive. How many tasers does it take,” Tiffany Allen, Pierre’s sister, questioned. “That's what I have to ask the police department. One? Two? Cause this was about eight to ten.”
The police appear to have difficulty dealing with people who have mental illness. This isn't the first time that a mentally-ill person has been killed by taser-happy police officers. When will they learn?
