Prosecutor: No charges against Charlotte officer

Posted: 29 minutes ago

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A prosecutor says a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer will not be charged in the death of a teenage grocery worker who died after being shocked with a Taser.

Mecklenburg Assistant District Attorney Marsha Goodenow told The Charlotte Observer on Monday that Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. was justified in using the Taser on Darryl Wayne Turner.

Goodenow says a video camera showed Turner throwing items at the store manager, then moving toward the police officer.

An autopsy showed Turner died from cardiac arrest. The report says the teen's heart stopped pumping properly because of the Taser shot and the stress of the confrontation.

It's not clear how many times Turner was shocked, although Goodenow says he was shocked more than once.

Turner family attorney Ken Harris said Monday he's considering a lawsuit.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/3167553/

7/8/2008 8:25:23 AM

damn how often does a taser kill somebody?

wonder what the kid was doing where the officer felt threatened....moved towards the officer is kinda vague.

7/8/2008 8:35:19 AM

Throwing boxes of cereal, obviously.

7/8/2008 8:36:21 AM

it sucks that the kid died, but with any non-lethal weapon, there's always the outside chance of death or serious injury.

7/8/2008 8:49:23 AM

Yea, or he could have just wrestled/clubbed him like in the old days and the kid would still be alive.

7/8/2008 9:18:40 AM

tazering multiple times (or to death) borders on sadism, esp considering the police are already in a position of authority/dominance/power.

7/8/2008 9:44:31 AM

he should have told him not to taze him

bro

7/8/2008 9:53:20 AM

Quote :

"Yea, or he could have just wrestled/clubbed him like in the old days and the kid would still be alive."

in the "old days", sometimes people were inadvertently killed by being wrestled/clubbed as well. We just didn't have the Internet back then.

7/8/2008 10:03:24 AM

If he had struck him in the head with a night stick, everyone would have been in outrage why he didn't use his non-lethal tazer.

Moral of the story: Don't throw cereal or move towards officers.

[Edited on July 8, 2008 at 10:08 AM. Reason : V and things never turn out how you expect. case and point.]

7/8/2008 10:06:23 AM

Quote :

"If he had struck him in the head with a night stick, everyone would have been in outrage why he didn't use his non-lethal tazer. "

i dont think that's where you're supposed to aim those things....

7/8/2008 10:07:12 AM

its police brutality no matter what we do,

7/8/2008 10:42:27 AM

Quote :

"i dont think that's where you're supposed to aim those things...."

they may not necessarily aim for the head, it ends up hitting them in the head.

7/8/2008 11:14:58 AM

you have to think that the officer is just trying to protect everyone else and now we have the fancy dancy tasers that are less than lethal

i cant believe that every single police officer has a vendetta and was the kid that was picked on in school

he thought that this was the best way to handle the situation

7/8/2008 11:40:24 AM

yes but if:

Quote :

"It's not clear how many times Turner was shocked, although Goodenow says he was shocked more than once."

is true, then I think the officer should be terminated or worse.

7/8/2008 11:45:57 AM

^pretty big statement

7/8/2008 12:20:31 PM

um. he was murdered tazered to death in public for

Quote :

"throwing items at the store manager, then moving toward the police officer."

7/8/2008 12:27:04 PM

We need higher educational and other requirements for police officers (as a result we should pay them more too).

But we just have too many retarded police officers out there. Don't get me wrong, there are some good ones...but there are a decent number of retarded ones too.

7/8/2008 12:31:48 PM

i don't think theres enough detail in that short article to really know what happened...if the cop overreacted, if the kid was a legit threat, if he had previous heart conditions, etc

7/8/2008 12:38:23 PM

Quote :

"but with any non-lethal weapon, there's always the outside chance of death or serious injury"

Doesn't that, by definition, make this a lethal weapon?

7/8/2008 12:39:38 PM

if you want to go down that road, name me something that ISN'T a lethal weapon...oh thats a nice soft pillow you have on your bed there...let me kill you by suffocating you with it

7/8/2008 12:56:46 PM

^agreed.

all "non-lethal" weapons -tasers/bean-bag shotshells, for example - can be lethal regardless.

I think the term should be "less lethal"

7/8/2008 1:01:09 PM

Tasers and nightsticks can both kill someone with medical issues and/or hit the right spot. The advantage of tasers is that they injure people much less often.

The danger with any less than lethal weapon is that an officer might apply the same discretion and judgment that they usually do with a firearm. Of course, I know some jurisdictions require a superior to examine the scene any time the officer's taser is used. That is not typically done when a nightstick/blunt weapon is used.

7/8/2008 1:59:51 PM

well i sure hope that officer if proud of himself and that he continues his career knowing that he shot and killed a kid that was accused of

Quote :

"throwing items at the store manager, then moving toward the police officer"

7/8/2008 2:08:29 PM

Can you imagine the officer screaming at a non-responsive perp to put his hands behind his back?

7/8/2008 2:10:25 PM

Tasers are not non-lethal. They are less than lethal. Because of this, many agencies are starting to implement rules that tasers can only be used in instances in which shooting the service weapon is an option. The kid approaching the cop could have probably been drawn down if the officer had just pulled his gun.

Tasers have become the first option weapon instead of the penultimate weapon that they should be.

I wish they would release the video so the public can make a determination on the subject.

[Edited on July 8, 2008 at 2:20 PM. Reason : .]

7/8/2008 2:16:53 PM

Quote :

"The kid approaching the cop could have probably been drawn down if the officer had just pulled his gun."

so your advice would be to pull a firearm (a lethal weapon) before the taser? i'm sure you'd pull a 180 if it had actually happened that way and the kid hadn't drawn down, and then you would've criticized him for not using a taser instead

7/8/2008 2:21:50 PM

sad case. However, im sure the kid was given several chances to do what the officer told him before he was tazed.

7/8/2008 2:21:55 PM

Quote :

"Tasers have become the first option weapon instead of the penultimate weapon that they should be."

seemingly good statement. now the time to make the decision to use taser/gun could pose a problem with reaction/defense/whatever.

" gun? taser? umm."



[Edited on July 8, 2008 at 2:23 PM. Reason : =]

7/8/2008 2:22:35 PM

I have to admit, if I was a police officer, I'd probably use the shit out of a taser.

But that's probably because I think it would be cool as shit to taze someone. I also have no desired to be a police officer.

7/8/2008 2:28:03 PM

Quote :

"it sucks that the kid died, but with any non-lethal weapon, there's always the outside chance of death or serious injury."

Quote :

" all "non-lethal" weapons -tasers/bean-bag shotshells, for example - can be lethal regardless. I think the term should be "less lethal""

the term is "less lethal" for tazers, bean bag shot gun rounds, quick expanding sticky foam, etc...

7/8/2008 2:42:51 PM

^cool. I wasnt too awfully sure of the wording, but I knew I seen it some where

7/8/2008 3:15:40 PM

Quote :

"so your advice would be to pull a firearm (a lethal weapon) before the taser? i'm sure you'd pull a 180 if it had actually happened that way and the kid hadn't drawn down, and then you would've criticized him for not using a taser instead"

If that doesn't make you happy, there is always mace.

Quote :

"seemingly good statement. now the time to make the decision to use taser/gun could pose a problem with reaction/defense/whatever."

That is where proper training comes in.

[Edited on July 8, 2008 at 3:18 PM. Reason : .]

7/8/2008 3:17:37 PM

can we say, underlying HOCM?

7/8/2008 5:23:14 PM

Quote :

" That is where proper training comes in"

and tons of it. definitely gotta have that mindset

7/8/2008 6:14:14 PM

Im scurred of the Police, seriously, I noticed the other day that I get edgy whenever I see them

if an officer ever confronted me I would immediately lay face down and put my hands behind my back and just give up.

7/8/2008 6:39:04 PM

just use pepper spray.

7/8/2008 7:42:00 PM

Tasers are not non-lethal. They are less than lethal. Because of this, many agencies are starting to implement rules that tasers can only be used in instances in which shooting the service weapon is an option. The kid approaching the cop could have probably been drawn down if the officer had just pulled his gun.

Tasers have become the first option weapon instead of the penultimate weapon that they should be.

Quote :

"We need higher educational and other requirements for police officers (as a result we should pay them more too). But we just have too many retarded police officers out there. Don't get me wrong, there are some good ones...but there are a decent number of retarded ones too. "

yep

Quote :

"Tasers are not non-lethal. They are less than lethal. Because of this, many agencies are starting to implement rules that tasers can only be used in instances in which shooting the service weapon is an option. The kid approaching the cop could have probably been drawn down if the officer had just pulled his gun. Tasers have become the first option weapon instead of the penultimate weapon that they should be. "

agreed, except having the cop drawing his pistol in this circumstance is fucking stupid and crazy, and 99 times out of 100 much worse than what he did. what he should've done is draw his TASER and tell the kid to slow his roll.

7/12/2008 4:27:49 AM