July 26, 2008 KY 3 News' Sara Sheffield reports on an injured teen from Ozark, Missouri who was tasered up to 19 times by police. Passing motorists called Ozark police out of concern for the teen as he walked along the busy overpass. When the police arrived, the young man was lying on the shoulder of the highway directly underneath the 30 foot high overpass with a broken back and foot.
Doctors believe 16-year-old Mace Hutchinson broke his back and heel after falling, as his injuries are consistent with such a fall. The boy's family does not understand why police would have tasered the the teen 19 times after he was so seriously injured.
The teen's father said that the use of the taser caused Mace to develop an elevated white blood cell count, leading to a fever that delayed the young man's otherwise immediate surgery by two days.
Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset attempted to explain why the taser was used: "He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he's also making statements such as, 'Shoot cops, kill cops,' things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers."
Ozark police say that while there remains unanswered questions in the case, the reason for the use of the Taser is not one of them.
This video is from KY3 News, broadcast July 24, 2008. Source
RCMP Tasers Man To Death At Vancouver Airport
November 15, 2007
Video footage has been released in Canada showing the last moments of an immigrant who died after being stunned with a Taser by police.
Robert Dziekanski, 40, of Pieszyce, Poland, was restrained by police after becoming agitated at Vancouver International Airport on 14 October.
Mr Dziekanski, who spoke no English, was declared dead at the scene by an emergency medical team.
The incident is being investigated by police, the airport and the coroner.
Police spokesman Cpl Dale Carr said the video was just one piece of evidence, and urged people to wait for the results of the inquest.
Mr Dziekanski, a construction worker, was emigrating to Canada to join his mother, who lived in the western province of British Colombia.
The incident has prompted a debate about the use of Taser stun guns by police in Canada.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says up to 18 people have died after being stunned by a Taser in Canada since 2003.
The video was shot by Canadian traveller Paul Pritchard and handed over to police, and has only just been returned to him.
It starts before the police arrive, with Mr Dziekanski seen through a glass wall in a customs area. He appears agitated, sweating and breathing heavily. Airport security officials and passengers watch from the other side.
Having landed 10 hours earlier, he is seen pacing back and forth through an automatic door, standing briefly in the doorway with a small folding table, and then later with a chair.
At one point, he takes what looks like a laptop computer off a counter and throws it to the ground, and then throws the small table against the glass wall.
Four policemen then walk into view. They walk through the glass doors towards Mr Dziekanski, who turns his back on them. Witnesses say he appeared to pick up a stapler.
Seconds later, Mr Dziekanski is stunned by a Taser and falls down screaming and convulsing.
He is stunned a second time, and then the police officers restrain him on the floor. Mr Dziekanski's screams die down, and he is seen lying still.
A voice is heard saying "code red", which is code for a medical emergency.
An autopsy found no sign of drugs or alcohol in Mr Dziekanski's system, and failed to pinpoint the cause of death.
The folks who attended the 40th anniversary of Austin's legendary Oat Willie's head shop on Saturday probably were holding just as many drugs as they did back in the day.
It's just that these days, at their age, the drugs they're holding come in small plastic bottles with their names on them.
So what do you suppose the average age of this bunch is? "I'm 48, and I think I'm on the low end," said Robert Ettinger, an attorney who plays poker regularly with Oat Willie's owner, Doug Brown. Ettinger was one of a couple hundred people who gathered at the Moose Lodge on E.M. Franklin Ave. in East Austin to celebrate one of Austin's longest-running businesses.
Just 'cause you're old doesn't mean you have to act your age, though. Artly Snuff, who performs with a funny local band called the Uranium Savages, came to the affair wearing a Haight-Ashbury pin on his shirt. "I'm hoping to get a lid here for $10," Artly joked.
Some of these people, though, weren't joking, I don't think. "Speaking of the spirit of the occasion, Bill and I are going to go out and smoke dope," said a gray-headed guy as he headed out the door. Hey, they had two huge cakes and Blue Bell ice cream. So could you blame them?
This Oat Willie's business started in 1968 when Doug Brown, who had come back to Austin to attend the University of Texas to get a business degree, decided to withdraw from school and make a living by selling rolling papers to hippies. Brown kicked in with his buddy George Majewski and bought what had been a head shop at 1606 Lavaca St. called the Underground City Hall. The place was renamed Oat Willie's Campaign Headquarters, after a comic book character with a long nose that the previous owners had run as a joke for governor of Texas. Majewski thinks they paid $75 for the place.
"That's what I remember," Majewski said Saturday as people sat around swapping stories, drinking beer and eating a cake with a likeness of Oat Willie decorating the top of it. "It might have been $7 and 50 cents, but I'm not sure. It sure wasn't $750."
Not in those days it wasn't. Back in those days you could have rented four apartments for $750.
Brown, who gave out free Oat Willie's comics and other memorabilia at Saturday's party, doesn't remember what he paid for the place. "I borrowed the money from Judy, though," he said. Judy is Brown's wife.
Forty years later Brown is Oat Willie's only owner. These days there are two stores — one on West 29th Street near the University of Texas, and Oat's South, on East Oltorf. It's been an up and down ride. There was the year in the '80s when the Legislature passed a law governing the sale of drug paraphernalia, including rolling papers, an Oat Willie's staple.
"We had two Christmases that year," Brown recalled. "We had Christmas season, and a few days before the law went into effect we sold a lot of stuff."
I didn't run into any boring people at this party. Wayne "Catfish" Smith came in all the way from Bastrop. He had a bumper sticker on the back of his truck that discourages tailgating by saying, "Unless you're a hemorrhoid get off my (keister)."
"I got that in North Carolina and I've never seen another one," said Catfish, who says he was at the grand opening of Underground City Hall in the '60s when the police came to bust up the party.
Also on hand was Raymond Frank, Travis County sheriff in the '70s. Frank is running for sheriff again, this time as a Republican.
"I've known Doug for all these years, so I got invited," Frank explained. "He's an admirer of mine, so I'm real thrilled to be here."
Frank is the sheriff who, back in the '70s, was at Soap Creek Saloon on Bee Cave Road when a hippie tried to hand him a joint. "No thanks, I'm enjoying wine this evening," Frank said.
Anyway, it was a great party and everybody had a good time.
"Look at all these people," Doug Brown said, surveying the crowd. "I've got 10 or 12 ex-employees here, and friends who went on to do their own thing, and we didn't have to call everybody together because somebody died."
John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445- 3606 or
July 26, 2008
November 15, 2007
