Arrested for sagging pants, Ervin Edwards tasered to death in custody; police lie in report

Shaun King

Community

Friday April 24, 2015 · 5:05 AM PDT

2015/04/24 · 05:05

no image description available — Ervin Edwards, arrested for sagging pants, dead in his cell after being Tasered to death

Ervin Edwards dead in his jail cell after being Tasered to death by police

Ervin Edwards, arrested for sagging pants, dead in his cell after being Tasered to death

On November 26, 2013, 38-year-old Ervin Edwards, partially deaf and mentally ill, was arrested by police for sagging his pants and taken to the West Baton Rouge Parish jail in Louisiana. He only lived for a few more minutes inside of the cell.

For 18 months, police have lied over and over again about what happened the night Ervin Edwards died in their custody. Now that a video of their despicable actions has been released, it's clear they murdered this man and left him to die all alone in his jail cell. The Advocate has provided an annotated video. See the video and my breakdown of their lies below the fold.

Lie #1: Officer Dustin McMullan claimed in his report to only use the Taser for five seconds.

“I then pulled the trigger on the Taser using the full five second circle on Edwards,” he wrote, meaning he shocked him for five seconds, which is the longest a shock can be applied without stopping for a brief time and pulling the trigger again. “However, the Taser did not appear to have any effect on Edwards.

Truth: Officer McMullan kept the Taser firmly pushed into Ervin Edwards for over 90 seconds—which is 18 times longer than the officer claimed.

In contrast to McMullan’s report, the video shows him keeping the stun gun pressed firmly against Edwards for nearly a minute and a half. While it’s unclear how much of that time was spent shocking the inmate, a bright blue light can be seen between the stun gun and Edwards on several occasions during a roughly 45-second period.

Lie #2: Officer McMullan claimed to re-holster the Taser after using it once for five seconds.

“Due to the obvious lack of effect of the Taser, I then re-holstered it,” McMullan wrote. “I then again assisted in restraining Edwards using empty hand control techniques” before the officers were able to remove the restraints from Edwards’ ankles and hands and all exit the cell.

Truth: Officer McMullan only re-holstered the Taser after 90 seconds and Ervin Edwards was dead.

Lie #3: McMullan claimed another deputy performed a well-check on Edwards and saw him moving around in the cell.

Truth: Ervin Edwards appears to have been dead the moment they left his jail cell and never moved an inch in the 10 minutes they left him there.

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Arrested for sagging pants, Ervin Edwards tasered to death in custody; police lie in report

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