Videos recently obtained by MSNBC show 46-year-old Linwood Lambert being tased numerous times by three Virginia police officers back in 2013. Police said they were escorting Lambert to a local hospital for observation. Problem is, they never took Lambert into the hospital. On the videos, police can be seen tasing a handcuffed Lambert on the ground in front of the entrance to the hospital. He would be dead about an hour later. Two years later, no criminal charges have been filed in the case. The disturbing video and a timeline of the events can be found here.
Police were initially called to a hotel in a place called South Boston in Southern Virginia in the predawn hours of May 4, 2013. Noise complaints had been made, which led the police to Lambert’s room. Officers said Lambert was acting irrationally and decided he should be transported to a local hospital for observation. Dash cam footage shows the officers walking with a handcuffed Lambert, although the police stress that Lambert had done nothing criminal and was not under arrest. But he had on handcuffs though.
Videos from both the hospital and the car’s dash camera eventually show officers arriving at Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital where a still handcuffed Lambert kicks out the car’s window and then runs out of the car and to the hospital doors, attempting to force his way in. All three officers begin using their tasers on Lambert. They do not take Lambert inside the hospital. The decision has now been made to arrest him. Once Lambert is returned to the back of the police car, he slumps down in the seat and an officer, demanding he sit up, begins to tase him again. Eventually, footage shows Lambert appearing unresponsive and an officer checking his pulse. He is returned, via ambulance, to the same hospital police had initially taken him to earlier. He was pronounced dead around 6:30 AM.
According to the MSNBC investigation, the three officers tased Lambert simultaneously numerous times. All total, officers fired their tasers a total of 20 times. The tasers the officers used carry 50,000 volts per discharge. Tasers are touted as being a less lethal option for subduing a person. Tell that to the family of Matthew Ajibade, who was also essentially tasered to death in Georgia in 2014.
Lambert can be heard on the video saying he has just done cocaine. MSNBC states that Lambert’s autopsy report lists “acute cocaine intoxication” as the cause of death, but does not include the severity of the tasering as a factor.
No one can argue (or should) that drugs are a great booster for a person’s health. What is unfortunate—and in some cases criminal—is that the extent of law enforcement actions are usually not factored in to the equation; It’s as if the unspoken sentiment is “had the person not been on drugs, or not had a history of drug use, they could have withstood the punishment we gave them.” Like in this case. Or this one.
Such actions are utterly unacceptable. We must not only expect better of law enforcement, we must demand it.