Police taser wheelchair-bound woman ten times
February 3, 2008 – 7:14 pm
Emily Marie Delafield, 56, was in poor physical and mental health but would not have died if she had not been shocked for more than two minutes by two Green Cove Springs (Florida) officers, according to the autopsy included in a State Attorney’s Office report.
This is old news (the homicide happened in April of 2006 and was ruled justifiable in February of 2007) but demonstrates how tasers have become law enforcement’s option of first response, even against people who are absolutely no threat to officers.
Delafield called police to her house and confronted them with knives and a hammer from the confinement of her motorized wheelchair. Police knew of her mental health issues; they had been at her house 28 times in the past. Officers Barbara Luedtke and James Acres decided to use tasers instead of batons or pepper spray on Delafield despite the fact that she had a limited range of motion and was on oxygen due to her medical condition.
After a 13-minute standoff Delafield raised the knife and Luedtke fired her taser. She told investigators she recycled the weapon up to four times when the shock did not appear to have an effect. Acres tased Delafield two minutes later after Luedtke’s shocks appeared not to be having an effect. Examination of the two weapons shows Luedtke’s was fired nine times and Acres’ once for a total of 121 seconds. Delafield collapsed several minutes after being shocked and died after she was taken to Orange Park Medical Center.
Associate Medical Examiner Valerie Rao, who performed the autopsy, called Delafield’s death a homicide and said the taser shocks were a contributing but “very small factor.” She described Delafield, who was obese and had an enlarged heart, as on a “precipice” health-wise, and said the shocks could have impacted her breathing.
The State Attorney’s Office report said the use of tasers was justified. Ryan Delafield, 35, the executor of Emily Marie’s estate, became frustrated after waiting three months for a death certificate and hired Jacksonville attorney Rick Alexander to investigate the case.