Man Shot by Police Taser Darts Dies

A young man jumping in and out of traffic in the Crenshaw area was shot with Taser electrical darts early Monday and died a short time later, officers reported.

Lt. William D. Hall, supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department’s officer-involved shooting unit, said police were told by a motorist just before 4 a.m. that the man was acting in a bizarre fashion and jumping in front of vehicles on Venice Boulevard, just west of Crenshaw Boulevard.

Wilshire Division Officers Steven Johnson and Steven Garcia tried to move the unidentified man out of the street, Hall said, but reported that he “appeared to be under the influence of a drug or narcotic.”

The officers sent for the Taser device, which shoots electrically charged darts on fish lines in order to stun a hard-to-handle suspect.

Although the first Taser shot failed to have any visible effect, a second appeared to calm the man down and he was handcuffed. Paramedics took him to Kaiser Foundation Hospital, where he died at 5 a.m., police said. Hall said an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.