Inmate Shot at Jail With Taser Gun Dies

A 32-year-old transient died in custody at the Men’s Central Jail on Sunday after his combative behavior forced deputies to shoot him twice with a Taser gun, authorities said. An inmate, however, said deputies repeatedly punched the man before he died.

The unidentified inmate was declared dead at White Memorial Hospital at about 10:30 a.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Stoneman. A staff doctor at the jail began resuscitation efforts after the man, who was lying on a gurney after being shocked with the Taser gun, stopped breathing, Stoneman said.

After the man was booked on suspicion of vandalism and outstanding burglary and narcotics warrants, he told jailers that he was high on PCP, Stoneman said. While handcuffed to a bench outside the jail’s medical clinic, the man picked up a two-foot-long chain attached to the wall and began swinging it hard enough to chip material from the wall, deputies said.

A deputy fired two Taser darts at the man and then four or five deputies subdued him and moved him to the gurney, Stoneman said.

A caller to The Times who said he was an inmate at the jail said that before the Taser was used, one deputy struck the man repeatedly with his fists while another fought to handcuff him to the bench.

One deputy was “on top of this individual and (another deputy) was beating this individual all about the head (with) his fists,” inmate Allan Davidson said. “He was beating him all about the face, the neck, the chest area while (the other deputy) was holding him down.”

Stoneman said none of dozens of witnesses interviewed reported such a beating.