The city of Chicago will reportedly pay a $55,000 settlement to a woman who claimed she was shocked with a stun gun while eight months pregnant, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Rent said she pulled into a handicapped parking spot in the Walgreens lot on the 110 block of South Michigan Avenue while her fiance ran into the store. She then got out of the car to re-seat her 3-year-old when a Chicago police officer began writing her a ticket.
Police said she tore up the ticket and threw it at the officer. When the officer asked her for identification, police said she refused to comply.
Police said the officer deployed his stun gun when Rent tried to put her car in gear and drive away.
"I don't think that it should have went this far," she said. "It just makes me afraid of the Chicago Police Department because there's other women that may have went through this or that's going through this."
Attorney Keenan Saulter further argued a parking ticket is not a reason to use a stun gun.
"A parking ticket," he said. "Not even a moving violation, but a parking ticket should not involve someone pulling out a Taser."
The accused officers claimed they did not know Rent was pregnant, but the officer who deployed the stun gun is under review.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said stun guns should be used when overcoming assault or preventing escape and “you can’t always tell if somebody’s pregnant.”
Rent gave birth in July to a baby boy named Joseph.
Police are searching for a man who allegedly tasered and then attempted to sexually assault a 23-year-old woman in a park in New York's Queens.
Authorities say the victim was jogging in Forest Park around 7:30 p.m. Friday night when the man grabbed her from behind, threw her to the ground and began to remove her clothing.
A couple walking their dog came upon the attack in progress, startling the man, who then ran off.
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A New Mexico state police officer used his Taser to stun a 10-year-old schoolboy who refused to clean his patrol car, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Fe County Court by the boy's family.
During a career day program at Tularosa Intermediate School in May, Officer Christopher Webb of the state Department of Public Safety pointed the stun gun at the boy and said, "Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police," according to the lawsuit filed last week.
Webb said his stun gun went off by accident, sending two barbs carrying 50,000 volts of electricity for five seconds through the boy’s clothing and piercing his chest, the Albuquerque Journal reported, quoting court documents. The jolt caused the boy to black out, the suit said.
Rachel Higgins, attorney for the boy who weighs less than 100 pounds and is referred to in the lawsuit by only his initials, told the court he has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, waking in the middle of the night clutching his chest in fear since the incident. He has scars the size of cigarette burns, she said in court papers.
The boy was only joking about not wanting to clean the patrol car when Webb asked a group of boys if they would, according to court documents.
A pregnant woman was reportedly Tasered and arrested by Chicago police Tuesday evening after she refused to move her vehicle from a handicap parking spot, according to local media reports. Officers also arrested her boyfriend.
Chicago Police Officer Robert Perez confirmed to msnbc.com that “an incident took place at 8:25 p.m. and two adults were placed under arrest, and a Taser was used on one individual.” He said the Chicago Police Department refused to comment further on the case.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Tiffany Rent was ticketed for parking in a handicapped space at a Walgreens in the Roseland neighborhood, located in south Chicago. A police report states Rent ripped up the ticket, threw it at the officer and apparently "attempted to take off," according to the Tribune.
At some point, a Taser was used to take the woman into custody, the Tribune reported.
Rent was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where a nursing supervisor told the Tribune the baby appeared to be unharmed. Rent's sister, Shareeta Rent, told the Tribune her sister is eight months pregnant. She was treated and later released, the nursing supervisor told the Tribune.
"I'm outraged, just livid. Who does that?" Shareeta Rent told the Tribune.
Shareeta Rent said her 30-year-old sister was sitting in her SUV when she was pulled out of the vehicle by officers. She said Rent was taunted while she was on the ground.
Shareeta Rent also said her sister's two children also were in the vehicle during the dispute.
"How could you do that to a pregnant woman?" Shareeta Rent told the Tribune. "My niece and nephew are in the back seat of the car crying. They did that in front of her kids."
Boyfriend Joseph Hobbs, the father of the unborn child, was arrested when he tried to intervene, police said. He suffered a dislocated elbow during the arrest, the Tribune reported.
A bear interrupted an elementary school graduation before getting the shock of its life. KGET-TV's Kiyoshi Tomono reports.
By msnbc.com staff
A young bear scampered between two schools in Bakersfield, Calif., disrupting a graduation ceremony, before being cornered in an apartment building and tasered by an animal control officer, NBC station KGET reports.
"Some girls came in running, uh there's a bear in front of the school. It ran through the elementary school playground before heading to the apartments across the street," Teresa Arambula, principal of Garza Elementary, told KGET on Thursday. Her school is beside Sierra Middle School.
The animal, thought to be one to two years old, weighed about 125 pounds, authorities said. In the video above, officers struggle with the animal, which has a snare loop around its neck, before capturing it and returning it to the wild.
A police officer working as a school resource officer in northern Mississippi twice stunned the mother of a middle school pupil with a Taser during a heated argument at the school Wednesday morning.
The woman — identified as Michele Lee Eaton, 39, of Saltillo, about 15 miles north of Tupelo — was arrested on disorderly conduct, public profanity and other charges, NBC station WTVA of Tupelo reported.
Lee County School Superintendent Jimmy Weeks said Eaton became upset and began to use profanity in the front office at Guntown Middle School, where she had gone to dispute an disciplinary matter involving her child.
Weeks wouldn't specify what the child had done or what punishment was meted out, but he told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that it didn't involve corporal punishment.
Weeks said administrators asked Eaton to calm down but that she continued to get louder.
When the school resource officer — a Guntown police officer who is certified to use a Taser — asked her to calm down, she stormed out of the office, followed by the officer, who told her he was placing her under arrest, Weeks said.
Guntown Police Chief Michael Hall said Eaton was charged with disorderly conduct, public profanity, resisting arrest and failure to comply with a law enforcement officer. She refused medical treatment and was taken to the Lee County jail, where she posted bail.
Guntown is the town where authorities rescued two kidnapped Tennessee girls earlier this month in a case that drew national attention. Authorities said Adam Mayes, 35, killed Jo Ann Bain and her daughter Adrienne, 14, on April 27 in Whiteville, Tenn., then fled with her two youngest daughters, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8.
The girls were found safe on May 3 after Mayes shot himself to death as police closed in on his hideout in the woods near Guntown. Mayes' wife, Teresa Mayes, is charged with murder in the killings.
MOUNT STERLING, Ohio -- An Ohio police officer says he used a stun gun twice on a 9-year-old who skipped school because the child refused to cooperate with his commands.
Details of the incident, which resulted in the shutdown of a village police force, were released Monday, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The Mount Sterling officer went to the boy's home on a truancy complaint last week. He says the child's mother warned the boy, who weighs between 200 and 250 pounds, to obey the officer or he'd be shocked.
According to a copy of the police report provided by the mayor’s office to msnbc.com, the officer wrote that the boy “dropped to the floor and became dead weight” and lay on his hands to prevent being handcuffed.
“He refused any and all orders. I told him if he did not stop flailing and place his hands behind his back, I would deploy the Taser on him. He still did not comply to my orders to stop resisting,” the officer wrote.
The officer said he deployed the stun gun twice before he was able to handcuff the boy. The child was checked by a medic before being taken to the sheriff’s office, and a delinquency count of resisting arrest was added to his truancy charge, according to the police report.
The village police chief, Mike McCoy, announced Monday night that he will resign from his post but said it has nothing to do with the Taser incident. McCoy read a statement that said the village’s declining budget keeps him from doing his job, according to the Dispatch.
“Basically, the funds we have here are very low and he wasn’t able to keep in budget,” Mayor Charles Neff said of the police chief.
McCoy was placed on paid leave late last week from his $49,900-a-year job for waiting two days before telling the mayor about the incident.
The loss of the chief effectively meant the end of the village’s police department, since he was the only full-time officer. The others were part time or volunteers, Neff has said.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office has taken on the task of patrolling Mount Sterling, which has a population of about 1,800.
Neff said state authorities are investigating whether the officer used excessive force or otherwise acted inappropriately in subduing the boy.
An edited surveillance video of a police officer firing a Taser at a 14-year-old girl has been released as part of evidence for a federal lawsuit filed against the officer and the city of Allentown.
An edited surveillance video of a police officer firing a Taser at a 14-year-old girl has been released as part of evidence for a federal lawsuit filed against the officer and the city of Allentown.
The incident happened back on Sept. 29 outside of Dieruff High School. The video first shows Keshana Wilson, 14, walking towards a car on the street with two friends on the 800 block of Washington Street before turning to talk to another group of students, according to the Morning Call.
The video then abruptly cuts to Allentown Police Officer Jason Ammary struggling with Wilson on the side of a parked car. Ammary appears to be shoving Wilson against the car. She then appears to push her left forearm against his face. Ammary then steps back and fires his Taser at Wilson’s groin, causing her to collapse to the ground. Several security officers then arrive. One can be seen leading a teen boy away in handcuffs.
The Morning Call reports Wilson was taken to the hospital to have probes from the Taser removed. She was charged with aggravated assault on the officer, simple assault, riot, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and walking on the highway, according to the Morning Call. The Morning Call also reports the assault and riot charges were dismissed in juvenile court.
Attorney Richard J. Orloski filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Wilson’s mother, Victoria Geist. The suit claims the officer used excessive force against the teen girl.
One minute and 40 seconds worth of video is missing, according to the lawsuit. The video does not show the confrontation between the officer and the girl nor what prompted it. The Morning Call reports that the lawsuit and the Allentown Police Department gave different accounts.
The lawsuit claims the girl did nothing to provoke the officer. Orloski says Ammary grabbed Wilson from behind without identifying himself and violently pushed her into the car. Orloski also says Ammary made insulting remarks about the girl’s “socioeconomic status.”
Allentown Police claim Wilson was cursing and inciting a group of people. They say that she then twisted away from the officer when he went in to arrest her for disorderly conduct. Ammary leaned her against the trunk of the car to place handcuffs on her but she continued to resist and elbowed him in the chin, according to police.
The Morning Call reports that Allentown Assistant Police Chief Joseph Hanna claimed the officer was justified in using the Taser because of the "use-of-force continuum."
The continuum is a standard that gives law enforcement officials guidelines regarding how much force may be used against a resisting subject in a given situation. According to the Morning Call, the continuum allows officers to use non-lethal means to restrain and control an active resister after their presence and verbal commands fail. These non-lethal means include pepper spray, hands, baton or the Taser. Hanna told the Morning Call that Wilson was considered a mid-level assailant and active resister and was likely to injure herself or the officer.
Hanna also claimed that officers are trained to use the justified amount of force dictated by the actions of the resister, not their age or gender, according to the Morning Call.
According to the lawsuit, the police report claims Ammary aimed his weapon lower because Wilson was using her backpack to block the Taser. The video shows Wilson’s upper body exposed however. The suit also says the police report claims hundreds of students were blocking traffic at the time of the incident. The video only shows a small number of students on the street however.
No word yet on Ammary’s status with the police department.
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