This is just tragic, but it falls in line with the batshit craziness that has been going on with law enforcement as of late. An Independence MO cop used a taser and critically injured a 17-year-old child (Bryce Masters) during a traffic stop.
It began with the cop telling the kid to roll down his window and then things went downhill from there. The kid is currently in the hospital in critical condition. Doctors had to put him in a medically induced coma because of brain swelling. All this after the cop used a stun gun and proceeded to drag the kid out of the car. The cop says the kid refused to roll his window down, but witnesses tell a different story.
Curtis Martes stepped outside to welcome Masters to his house in the 200 block of Southside Boulevard about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, only to find that a police officer had pulled his friend over."The cop went up to the passenger window and was like, 'hey, roll down the window,'" Martes said.
However, Martes says Masters couldn't roll it down. "He doesn't have the cable that allows the electric window to work," Martes said. But Independence police said Masters had an outstanding traffic violation and refused to cooperate with the officer.
"I believe he did crack the window but did not roll it down any further. He was just being completely uncooperative with the officer," Sgt. Darrell Schmidli said. That's when things got rough.Police say the officer did what he had to do to protect himself because the teen began to struggle with the officer. "The driver refused to exit the vehicle. A struggle ensued, a Taser was deployed by the officer. The driver was finally removed out of the car. A struggle ensued once he was moved out of the car," Sgt. Darrell Schmidli said.
However, witnesses describe a different scene. "The cop was like, 'you want to mess with me,' and pulled out his Taser and tased him. I thought he shot him. Then he pulled him out of the car handcuffed him and drug him around the car," witness Michelle Baker said.
Schmidli said Masters was warned the officers were going to use a stun gun and still refused to cooperate. "It looked like he hit his head on the concrete. You could see blood coming out of his mouth. The cop put his foot on his back and moved it back and forth like he was putting a cigarette out and asked him, 'are you ready to get up now?' You could tell the kid was going into convulsions," Baker said.
Witnesses who saw the whole thing happen say they watched Masters die and then come back to life after emergency crews resuscitated him.
But the plot thickens…
The kid's dad is a cop with the Kansas City Police Department and the Masters' family has asked The Justice Department to step in and lead an investigation of the Independence MO Police Department.
Here's the statement released by the family's attorney:
"The family of Bryce Masters would like to thank everyone for their outpouring of concern and support.
"Because of significant inconsistencies between public statements made by the Independence Police Department and information made available to the family in the form of statements of eyewitnesses and video and audio footage of the occurrence, the family has asked the United States Department of Justice to conduct its own investigation into these tragic events.
"Because Bryce is still in critical condition, the Masters family asks that their privacy be respected in allowing them to focus on Bryce's needs and his recovery."
See, sooner or later these crazy ass cops are going to abuse the wrong person, and it looks like they've done it because now you have two police agencies
potentially at odds. (The Kansas City PD and the Independence PD).
BTW, the plot has thickened even more.
The FBI announced Monday afternoon that it has launched an investigation of the Independence Police Department after a teen was left in a coma following an arrest.
Here's a link to the video:
KCTV5
Mon Sep 15, 2014 at 10:33 PM PT: Edited to add this from peachcreek
And there is more... (8+ / 0-)
An officer had pulled over Masters because there was an outstanding Kansas City Police Department warrant associated with the vehicle. This occurred just after 3 p.m. Sunday in the area of East Southside Boulevard and Main Street.
The warrant was for a woman.
from your last link.
by peachcreek on Mon Sep 15, 2014 at 10:01:49 PM PDT
3:19 PM PT: UPDATE: Another statement by the Masters' attorney on the condition of young Bryce.
"Late Sunday afternoon, an Independence Police officer fired a Taser device at Bryce. The probes from the Taser struck Bryce approximately six (6) inches apart in close proximity to his heart which, according to the hospital trauma surgeon, appears to have caused Bryce to go into fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Bryce was in full cardiac arrest when EMS arrived at the scene.
"Bryce is presently being treated for severe acute oxygen deprivation to the brain as a result of the cardiac arrest and the elapsed time before EMS arrived. Bryce is not being treated for head trauma related to a fall or being struck. The treatment for Bryce's condition included being placed in a medically induced coma and the lowering of his core body temperature.
"Late yesterday evening, the Centerpoint Medical Center team caring for Bryce began efforts to bring Bryce out of the medically induced coma. The process took place overnight and early this morning Bryce began responding to stimuli. Although the news is positive, the family remains guardedly optimistic as it is far too early to know the long term effect of his injuries. As of this morning Bryce remains in critical but stable condition."
Incidentally, Masters was hit near his heart with the stun gun probes. A doctor (Stephen Thornton, University of Kansas Medical Center) describes what stun guns do to the body. This doesn't sound like non-lethal force to me. It sounds like a game of Russian Roulette:
"Causing the heart to beat funny, that's certainly a high-risk event that, if it happened and they didn't recognize it right away, they might not be able to reverse it and it could lead to the problems that this family is saying happened to this child," Thornton said.
He said the amount of electricity sent into the body is considered low, but any number of factors could go into something bad happening when the body has had a stun gun used on it.
"There are studies that show, yes, there are risks of basically your heart going into dysrhythmias or funny heartbeats from the electricity and there are studies that show that Tasers can make you stop breathing. They can contract your diaphragm," Thornton said.
http://www.kctv5.com/...
A POST SCRIPT: I hate to have to say this, but I feel I must. I have yet to see any attempts at character assassination on this young man. I mean, isn't that what the talking heads usually do when a teen is either injured or killed by a cop---or a vigilante?
Where are the thug pictures? Where are the hoodie pictures? Where are the stories of behavior issues and problems with authority? Where are the alcohol/marijuana reports from "friends" and acquaintances? Teens are teens. Black, white, brown…whatever. No racial group has a monopoly on these things, so why hasn't the media dug into this kid's life as meticulously as they did all the other victims?
Inquiring minds REALLY wanna know….
8:38 PM PT: Here's something I wrote the other day that sums up my opinion of this whole situation. If anyone is offended, I don't care. I'm beyond being polite. Deal with it.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
