Police stun gun kills teen with Bible

buttmunch · October 31st, 2006, 11:13 AM

Quote:

A teenager carrying a Bible and shouting "I want Jesus" was shot twice with a police stun gun and later died at a St. Louis hospital, authorities said.
In a statement obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, police in Jerseyville, about 40 miles north of St. Louis, said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and he continued yelling, "I want Jesus."

Police tried to calm the teen, but Holyfield became combative, according to the statement. Officers fired the stun gun at him after he ignored their warnings, then fired again when he continued struggling, police said.

Holyfield was flown to St. Louis' Cardinal Glennon Hospital after the confrontation Saturday; he died there Sunday, police said.

An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.

The statement expressed sympathy to Holyfield's family but said city and police officials would not discuss the matter further.

Calls Tuesday to Jerseyville Police Chief Brad Blackorby were not immediately returned. The department has been using stun guns for about five months, according to the statement.

In a report released in March, international human rights group Amnesty International said it had logged at least 156 deaths across the country in the previous five years related to police stun guns.

The rise in deaths accompanies a marked increase in the number of U.S. law enforcement agencies employing devices made by Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. About 1,000 of the nation's 18,000 police agencies used Tasers in 2001; more than 7,000 departments had them last year, according to a government study.

Police had used Tasers more than 70,000 times as of last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office said.

Amnesty International has urged police departments to suspend the use of Tasers pending more study. Taser International said the group's count was flawed and falsely linked deaths to Taser use when there has been no such official conclusion.

The city of St. Louis also drew unwanted attention for crime this week when it was named the most dangerous U.S. city by Morgan Quitno Press. The ranking looked only at crime within St. Louis city limits, not its metro area.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/31/D8L3L5G83.html

I'm not getting why the police were approaching the kid. ANd I really fucking think stun guns/tasers are sick fucking weapons.

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 12:28 PM

Oh darn. A protofundie snuffed out.

Let me shed a tear.

*strain*

Nope, can't do it.

buttmunch · October 31st, 2006, 12:32 PM

Eh, I don't want to see some misguided kid die.

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 12:42 PM

Better him get snuffed than have him turn into some wackjob fundie to come clutching for us all.

sweetrebel · October 31st, 2006, 01:21 PM

come on now, Grimm, surely you have some sympathy for loss of human life...no matter what they may have grown up to become...surely...

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 01:28 PM

I'd be able to sympathize if I could see the future and know what he would have turned out like.

I'd feel bad if he turned out fine.

From this vantage point, he looks like the kind of person that would become the type that spits hate and intolerance at every turn and call it 'religion'.

Those people should be euthanized.

Lobelia · October 31st, 2006, 01:33 PM

Geez, I was going to make a tacky joke about that's what you get for yelling I want Jesus, cuz everybody knows you have to make an appointment, but I'm a little disturbed that you think he should have been killed? He sounds more mental than fundie.

sweetrebel · October 31st, 2006, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

I'd be able to sympathize if I could see the future and know what he would have turned out like.

I'd feel bad if he turned out fine.

From this vantage point, he looks like the kind of person that would become the type that spits hate and intolerance at every turn and call it 'religion'.

Those people should be euthanized.

Possible he was shizophrenic...I know I am making exscuses for a kid I don't know, but...there are so many other possibilities here.

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobelia

Geez, I was going to make a tacky joke about that's what you get for yelling I want Jesus, cuz everybody knows you have to make an appointment, but I'm a little disturbed that you think he should have been killed? He sounds more mental than fundie.

The line is blurred these days

I'm not saying he SHOULD have been killed, because I don't know how he would have turned out. From what I *do* know in the article, he seemed like a fundie and I won't shed a tear based on that determination.

AliceInWonderland · October 31st, 2006, 01:52 PM

well Jesus himself was killed too for his beliefs........the Savior?

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 01:54 PM

I wonder if modern Romans would have used a stun gun on Jesus.

Lobelia · October 31st, 2006, 01:58 PM

Well what the heck is going on with these guns actually killing people? What are they dying from, heart failure or something? Something needs to be did.

Grimmlok · October 31st, 2006, 02:00 PM

Yeah, it's basically running current through your system which can linger and fuck up your hearts' ability to pump properly.

That's how they work.. they jolt you with enough juice so that every muscle in your body contracts severely.

buttmunch · October 31st, 2006, 02:08 PM

They a sick weapon but what I want to know is what was the kid doing that brought the heat on him? Screaming about Jesus goes on every day all over the country so it couldn't have been that.

sweetrebel · October 31st, 2006, 02:17 PM

I'm sure it will come out eventually.
I wonder if the people who are dying from the stun guns are healthy or if they have some sort of health problem that makes them unable to "snap back" from the charge.