Man dies after being tased while trying to flee police

By Lucas Sellem

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    ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KMOV) — A man died in the hospital early Friday morning after being tased twice while trying to flee from police.

On Thursday around 8:45 p.m., St. Louis Metropolitan Police were requested to respond to a violent CIT offender in the 3700 block of Minnesota. According to SLMPD, when officers arrived and made contact with the offender, he was completely naked and disoriented. He then tried to flee from police but tripped and fell into a fence at the front of the residence. Two officers picked him up and tried to handcuff him; however, he slipped from their hold, tripping over a bicycle, and fell to the ground. One officer then tased him in his back while the other two tried handcuffing him again. While they were trying to put him in handcuffs a second time, an officer “applied a drive stun” with the taser to his shoulder. The other two officers were then able to place him in handcuffs.

SLMPD says the man became unresponsive and one of the officers began CPR until EMS arrived. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:48 a.m. The Force Investigation Unit was requested and assumed the ongoing investigation. The officer the deployed the taser was placed on leave, according to the department.

Police told News 4 the officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident. The video has not been released.

News 4 will update this story once more information has been released.

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