Duane Cardall's son killed

[beelzebabette]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6764721

Brian Cardall, son of KSL's Editorial Director Duane Cardall, and his wife, who is six months pregnant, were traveling south on State Road 59 just outside of Hurricane after visiting his family in Salt Lake City.

According to his wife, Cardall, who has a recent history of mental illness, was having an episode prompting them to pull over to medicate.

Once stopped, Cardall got out of the vehicle and began to run down the road.

His wife called 911.

Not long after, she found out he had been tased and was unresponsive.

CPR was administered on scene. Cardall was taken to the Dixie Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

That just sucks. I can't even imagine how I would feel as the wife.

[Coach McGuirk]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6764721

That just sucks. I can't even imagine how I would feel as the wife.

[CardiacCoug]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6764721

That just sucks. I can't even imagine how I would feel as the wife.

There have been hundreds of deaths due to tasers.

I've seen several papers presented on this topic in cardiology journals -- I saw one where scientists tasered 11 anesthetized pigs for about 40 seconds each and 2 of the pigs went into a fatal arrhythmia and couldn't be resuscitated.

More and more people have pacemakers or defibrillators these days and tasers wreak havoc on these devices.

I guess they're better than shooting somebody, but they are far from harmless.

[The Wankster]

This kind of shit just pisses me off, seriously, what was this guy doing that would prompt them to taser him?

Did he have a gun? a knife? another form of weapon?

Was he just agitated and acting irrational, was the cop alone, and had no one else to help tackle the guy? Just seems pretty senseless to me.

I feel the same about this as I do with these standoffs with the SWAT members who surround a dudes house and then bombard an already severely agitated person with phone calls, lights, threats, etc.....

It's like they can't wait a few hours for the dude to calm down, back everyone away, surround the house with regular police officers, and wait for the dude to just chill.

No, they have to be relentless in their pursuit of taking control of a situation.

Now if there are hostages involved, that's a different case, but just some dude threatening to kill himself, why instigate them to the point of death by police suicide, or just suicide?

There have been a rash of these lately, makes you wonder if there isn't a better way of resolving them?

[Guest]

It's like they can't wait a few hours for the dude to calm down, back everyone away, surround the house with regular police officers, and wait for the dude to just chill.

No, they have to be relentless in their pursuit of taking control of a situation.

A good friend of mine when I was a kid developed schizophrenia in his late teens. By the time he was nineteen it was advanced.

He wrote me every week on my mission. Every week. Sometimes incoherent and rambling, but they were always heartfelt. The letters were often interlaced with incidents from Scout trips or SNL skits we joked about when we were younger.

A few years later he had a bad episode. He was home from the hospital and ran through the neighborhood late one night. Cops were called. They chased him and then tasered him. He fell in a swimming pool and died.

My mom sent me the news clippings when I was at school, but I didn't read any of them. Didn't want to. I asked about the details years later.

I'm sympathetic to your post.

[venkman]

This kind of shit just pisses me off, seriously, what was this guy doing that would prompt them to taser him?

Did he have a gun? a knife? another form of weapon?

Was he just agitated and acting irrational, was the cop alone, and had no one else to help tackle the guy? Just seems pretty senseless to me.

I feel the same about this as I do with these standoffs with the SWAT members who surround a dudes house and then bombard an already severely agitated person with phone calls, lights, threats, etc.....

It's like they can't wait a few hours for the dude to calm down, back everyone away, surround the house with regular police officers, and wait for the dude to just chill.

No, they have to be relentless in their pursuit of taking control of a situation.

Now if there are hostages involved, that's a different case, but just some dude threatening to kill himself, why instigate them to the point of death by police suicide, or just suicide?

There have been a rash of these lately, makes you wonder if there isn't a better way of resolving them?

Not knowing the specifics of this case, in general I totally agree with you. I'm very pro law enforcement, but I'm concerned over the seeming militarization / overwhelming force trend we see today. I know the world is a dangerous place and we don't live in Mayberry, but I'd like to see a little more Andy Taylor type "peace officer" attitude in the police community.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

This kind of shit just pisses me off, seriously, what was this guy doing that would prompt them to taser him?

Did he have a gun? a knife? another form of weapon?

Was he just agitated and acting irrational, was the cop alone, and had no one else to help tackle the guy? Just seems pretty senseless to me.

I feel the same about this as I do with these standoffs with the SWAT members who surround a dudes house and then bombard an already severely agitated person with phone calls, lights, threats, etc.....

It's like they can't wait a few hours for the dude to calm down, back everyone away, surround the house with regular police officers, and wait for the dude to just chill.

No, they have to be relentless in their pursuit of taking control of a situation.

Now if there are hostages involved, that's a different case, but just some dude threatening to kill himself, why instigate them to the point of death by police suicide, or just suicide?

There have been a rash of these lately, makes you wonder if there isn't a better way of resolving them?

He was running down the road and he was mentally unstable. That's the road that connects the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Colorado City to Hurricane/I-15. It's also one of two routes from Lake Powell to I-15. People commonly drive pretty fast on that road. The police officer might have been trying to prevent this kid from hurting both himself and causing a car accident.

[FMCoug]

I guess they're better than shooting somebody, but they are far from harmless.

What I see as the problem is that because they are "less lethal" or whatever they call it, the bar for using them is so much lower than a gun. Like wankster said, what the hell was this guy doing to warrant a potentially lethal use of force.

[Fiyero]

So long as there were no eyewitnesses other than police, their PR will release a carefully-worded list of lies. In the event that someone filmed the officer, he will be sanctioned / fired / forced to resign. People don't need to carry guns, they need to carry cameras.

[FMCoug]

So long as there were no eyewitnesses other than police, their PR will release a carefully-worded list of lies. In the event that someone filmed the officer, he will be sanctioned / fired / forced to resign. People don't need to carry guns, they need to carry cameras.

I wonder if the use of a taser carries with it the same back-end scrutiny as the use of a gun? Doubtful. And it probably should. If you're a cop and you use a weapon, whether it be gun, taser, or nightstick, you should be scrutinized for the action ...

[RobinFinderson]

[YOUTUBE]EP4UIkErS2s[/YOUTUBE]

[venkman]

[YOUTUBE]EP4UIkErS2s[/YOUTUBE]

This is out of control. What kind of pussy cop feels threatened by a 72 year old great grandmother? The lady was out of line, but please, there's other ways to restrain this lady without tasering.

Cops say he's following guidelines. Then change the guidelines!

[ERCougar]

There have been hundreds of deaths due to tasers.

I've seen several papers presented on this topic in cardiology journals -- I saw one where scientists tasered 11 anesthetized pigs for about 40 seconds each and 2 of the pigs went into a fatal arrhythmia and couldn't be resuscitated.

More and more people have pacemakers or defibrillators these days and tasers wreak havoc on these devices.

I guess they're better than shooting somebody, but they are far from harmless.

They're not harmless, but their danger gets overblown with stories like this.

For one...we're not pigs (you know that.. ). For two, no one gets tased for 40 seconds straight--it's a couple of seconds and done. I have seen literally hundreds of tased patients and have never seen one be seriously injured in any way. I have read a few case reports but it seems like in every case, there's some underlying issue that comes out (high on crack/meth seems to be the most common).

[ERCougar]

I'm sorry guys, but every one of you needs to spend a day, even a half a day, in a cop's shoes before judging. I don't have to deal with nearly the amount of crap that they do, but we get our share of combative patients (usually after the cops have gotten to them), and it's all you can do to not sit back and just let them maim or injure themselves. I would NEVER want their job, especially with a bunch of internet pansies sitting back and second-guessing their every move.

I think there's a role for reviewing these cases, but not by a bunch of people without any of the facts.

[SeattleUte]

They're not harmless, but their danger gets overblown with stories like this.

For one...we're not pigs (you know that.. ). For two, no one gets tased for 40 seconds straight--it's a couple of seconds and done. I have seen literally hundreds of tased patients and have never seen one be seriously injured in any way. I have read a few case reports but it seems like in every case, there's some underlying issue that comes out (high on crack/meth seems to be the most common).

How might a taser have killed Cardal's son?