It turns out that Howard Cook was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for a traffic violation by the Pennsylvania State Police. Mr. Cook had some outstanding warrants and the sight of the flashing lights made him nervous ... so he made what turned out to be a fatal mistake ... he got out of the car and ran.
The police had no way of knowing about the warrants when they began chasing Mr. Cook. They simply saw a Black man running and they pulled out their taser guns. They shot the man once with a taser gun during the chase ... and evidently they electrocuted him once more when they caught him near his home.
The York Police Department took Mr. Cook into custody and then noticed that he wasn't breathing. He was taken to the York Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
"He left four children by themselves. He has a great wife. He left a lot of family members and a lot of friends that really loved them," said Claudia Ortiz.
The coroner says an autopsy did not determine the cause of death.
I can't imagine that it is rocket-science. The police pumped 50,000 volts of electricity into the young man's body twice ... and his heart stopped. The young man was UNARMED and there is no evidence of drug use. He simply made the same mistake that most Black men make when they see flashing lights on top of a police car ... he got scared.
Now his four children no longer have a father. When will the police admit that there is something wrong when a so-called non-lethal weapons continue to kill American citizens on a weekly basis?
