AIDS-Tainted Blood Splatters 2 Deputies : Dart Used to Stun Suspect Opens Wound; Officers to Receive Tests

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies attempting to subdue a man with AIDS-related complex were splattered with the man’s blood as they handcuffed him after shooting him in the cheek with a stun-type dart gun, authorities said Tuesday.

The deputies’ hands and uniforms were “soaked” by the blood of Sean McCally, 27, during the incident Monday night in his Valinda home near West Covina, officials said. One of the deputies had a cut on his hand, which was exposed to the suspect’s blood, according to Sheriff Sherman Block.

While research strongly suggests that AIDS can only be transmitted through sexual or intravenous contact or from an exposed mother to her newborn child, there has been a handful of documented cases--nearly all involving medical workers--who acquired the deadly disease through open wounds. There have been no such reported cases involving law enforcement personnel.

Nonetheless, Monday’s incident caused widespread concern among deputies fearful of contracting AIDS from those they encounter on the street.

“There are some people in this department who are scared to death because of this,” said one high-ranking sheriff’s official.

Periodic Testing for Deputies

Block said the two deputies who encountered McCally, particularly the one who had a cut on his hand, will undergo periodic testing for the next year and a half for the AIDS virus.

“This could have a tremendous impact on how they live their lives over the next 18 months in dealing with their family situations and so forth,” Block said at a press conference. He would not identify the deputies other than to say that both were from the Industry station and married.

“They are concerned but yet they are not in any way hysterical over the situation, and they continue to work. . .,” Block said.

The sheriff, meanwhile, used the incident to reiterate his call for a November ballot initiative that would, among other provisions, require criminal suspects to undergo mandatory blood testing if it is believed that they are carrying the AIDS virus or other sexually communicable diseases.

Under present California law intended to ensure an individual’s right to medical privacy, police officers cannot be told if a person is an AIDS carrier without his or her permission.

Several deputies have been bitten or spat upon in recent months by suspects and jail inmates purported to have AIDS, but the law has precluded those deputies from learning if the suspects were infected, Block said. Those deputies have also undergone periodic testing.

The confrontation Monday began at about 9:30 p.m. when the two deputies responded to a family disturbance call in the 1300 block of Bannon Avenue. There, they found McCally in the front yard, carrying a four-foot wooden pole, authorities said.

Deputy Kathryn Nielsen, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said McCally was ordered to drop the pole but refused, saying, “You’ll have to kill me.”

McCally then ran into the house as his girlfriend, a sister and several children escaped through an open window, Nielsen said.

The deputies entered the house through the back door and again confronted McCally. When he refused to drop the pole this time, a sheriff’s sergeant who had arrived on the scene fired a Taser. The device shoots two darts connected to thin wires that deliver a 50,000-volt jolt of electricity, enough to immobilize a suspect for as long as 30 seconds.

The Sheriff’s Department initially reported that one of the darts glanced off the pole carried by McCally and that the other lodged in his cheek, causing a “profusely” bleeding wound, Nielsen said.

Block, however, later told reporters that both darts hit McCally--one in the cheek and one in the abdomen--and “he went down.” Block also amended earlier reports that the sergeant and both deputies were exposed to McCally’s blood; only the deputies were exposed.

After McCally was handcuffed, he told the deputies that he has AIDS, Block said.

McCally has worked for about two years as a quality control technician at Dynametric Inc., an aircraft components manufacturing firm in Monrovia, according to the company’s president, William McFadden. Workers there knew him as “Kevin,” McFadden said.

He would not discuss whether the company was aware of McCally’s medical condition. “He was a good worker,” McFadden said.

McCally was treated at a West Covina hospital for his Taser wound and transferred to a special ward in the county’s Central Jail, which houses inmates believed to be carrying the AIDS virus. There are 237 inmates on the ward, including 53 with known cases of AIDS, Block said.

McCally was held there on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Bail was set at $5,000.

Block said McCally authorized the Sheriff’s Department to draw from him a blood sample, which was being analyzed Tuesday. That sample, however, may prove moot: McCally’s medical records, which he also provided authorities, confirmed that he is suffering from AIDS-related complex, the sheriff said.