Officer Accidentally Kills Old Disabled Man

61-year-old Roger Anthony has been tased to death by rookie Officer John Turner of Scotland Neck, (North Carolina, USA) while riding his bicycle. According to his sister, Anthony is disabled with impaired hearing, and would suffer from regular seisures.

There have been so many reports of police abusing their power and becoming violent to otherwise peaceful people, particularly with the Occupy Movement and unfortunately this is now another disturbing story giving the brave men and women of the police forces a further mistrusted and bad name.

On Monday night, a call came through mentioning a man who had fallen off his bicycle and injured himself in a parking lot. The caller was concerned about the man being intoxicated. Officer Turner, in his first month in the force, responded to the call. After arriving at the scence, he found Roger Anthony riding his bicycle down the street.

Officer Turner followed him in his patrol vehicle while sounding his siren and ordering him out of the window to pull over. Anthony failed to respond (presumably due to his lack of hearing). Turner allegedly saw Anthony take something out of his pocket and put it into his mouth. Turner got out of the car and yelled at him to stop. When he didn't, the officer used a stun gun on him. This caused Anthony to fall from his bike.

Upon being rushed to hospital, Anthony was declared brain dead, and was then taken off life support the next day. Anthony's sister Gladys Freeman said Anthony was riding his bike from her house on Sunday night back to his home, where he lived alone in an independent living community.

Mayor of Scotland Neck, James Mills is pushing for a state investigation into these events. He said "the best we've been able to determine is that he offered no threat".

Anthony's brother-in-law said Anthony was known as "The Rabbit" because of his large ears, and was well-known for riding his bicycle around town. "Why would you [use a stun gun on] a man on a bike?" he said. "He wasn't trying to escape. How [was] he going to escape on his bicycle?"

In fairness though to the officer in question, while he was quick to react, it would be unfair to judge him too harshly for his use of a non-lethal weapon. In the heat of the moment when a police officer is dealing with a potential threat, sometimes the best action at the time isn't the most logical or reasonable in hindsight. There is a very fine line between police brutality and an overly cautious officer in his first month on the job.

On the other hand, this comes just a month after a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union that says police in New York are "consistently misusing and overusing tasers". Perhaps the death of Roger Anthony could, if nothing else, spark a policy change or better training to prevent issues like this in the future.

While we would certainly all disagree with how Officer Turner handled the situation, how much of a penalty would really be reasonable for this tragic mistake?