Top 7 'Shocking' Taser Incidents
A grandmother, pregnant woman, university student all felled by Tasers.
July 24, 2009— -- Police officers often take a lot of flak for their actions after being thrust into volatile situations.
Department policy often outlines when use of force -- from a gun to a baton -- is warranted, but the increased use of Tasers has created a grey area where internal investigators often struggle to balance an officer's right to protect himself and others with the use of high-voltage electricity shot into another person's body.
Some of the more high-profile uses of Tasers have turned into punch lines or jokes, like the 2007 "Don't tase me bro!" incident at the University of Florida.
But others, such as this year's death of a mentally ill man in New York City, can have life-changing consequences for the victims and the officers involved.
Here is a list of some of the most memorable Taser incidents:
Two Boise, Idaho, police officers were reprimanded after an investigation concluded excessive force was used on an unidentified man who was shocked in the back and the backside.
But it wasn't the actual shocks that got the officers in trouble. It was their threats to tase the man in the anus and genitals that raised eyebrows. The man, who claimed the officers thrust the Taser into his nether regions, told the Idaho Statesman that he plans to sue.
Police were called to the scene after a neighbor reported a possible domestic violence dispute.
A routine traffic stop got off to a bad start for 72-year-old great-grandmother Kathryn Winkfein.
After being pulled over in Travis County, Texas, in May for driving 60 mph in a 45 mph zone, Winkfein, captured on the officer's dashboard camera, refused to sign her ticket. She then got out of the truck, telling Officer Chris Bieze to "give me the f---ing ticket now."
Bieze can then be seen shoving the woman, something he said was to keep her away from oncoming traffic.
"You're going to shove me? You're going to shove a 72-year-old woman?" Winkfein demanded.
Bieze can be heard on the tape warning the woman about a half dozen times that he would tase her if she didn't stand back, to which she replied, "Go ahead, tase me."
So he did.
Winkfein was charged with resisting arrest and taken to jail. Bieze's boss later told reporters that his officer did everything by the book.
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