Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - After a total of around 700 Taser operations by the North Rhine-Westphalian police since last year, three people had to be treated in hospital. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) announced this to the state parliament's interior committee on Thursday.
In one of the three cases, the person concerned had consumed significant amounts of drugs, in the second case an injury from a previous fight had to be treated and in the third case there was a suspicion of an epileptic seizure.
In around 75 percent of the operations, the threat to use the electric shock device remained, but this was not triggered.
The hospital stays were not necessarily caused by the Taser use, said Reul. This was also not clearly clarified in the case of the death of a 44-year-old after a Taser operation in Dortmund.
In the case of the operation against the homeless man in Dortmund, two electric shocks were triggered, a senior public prosecutor reported. The man, who weighs 137 kilograms and is 1.99 meters tall, previously hit a police officer in the head and then tried to drive away in a patrol car. Bodycams were not switched on during the operation against the 44-year-old. The autopsy revealed that the man had a serious heart condition and was under the influence of alcohol.
