"Don't taze my granny!" Police taser bedridden elderly woman

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Police officers here are being sued for using a Taser last December to subdue a disabled grandmother, then 86, in her apartment bed.

Her grandson pleaded with officers, "Don't taze my Granny!" according to the lawsuit.

"I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else," Lona M. Varner, now 87, told The Oklahoman Thursday.

She and her grandson, Lonnie D. Tinsley, on Monday sued the city of El Reno, officer Thomas Duran, officer Frank Tinga, officer Joseph Sandberg and other unknown police officers.

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Police have admitted using a Taser to incapacitate the suicidal woman Dec. 22. Officer Duran wrote in a police report she pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to kill him. "I tried talking to Varner and calm her down but nothing would work," he reported.

The officer reported she took "a more aggressive posture on the bed" when other officers arrived. He reported she raised the knife above her head and said, "If you come any closer, you're getting the knife." He reported he feared she would injure someone.

Then... back off? Short of throwing the knife, she can't exactly hurt anyone at a distance with it.

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Police went to the apartment Dec. 22 after her grandson called 911 for a paramedic to check on her. "She says ... her life is over. She wants to end it. ... She's taken some medicine. I don't know what she's taken," Tinsley said in the 911 call. "I can't get her to tell me what she took. ... She's kind of upset and everything else."

Varner's attorney, Brian Dell of Oklahoma City, said police acted inappropriately and could have killed her with the Taser shock. He said she was never charged.

He said Varner has had a series of health problems, including strokes. She uses an oxygen machine to help her breathing and can barely walk by herself. She uses an electric cart to get around and can see out of only one eye.

He said she was in a hospital-type bed when she was shocked.

"Even if you reasonably believe someone's going to commit suicide, do you Taser them?" the attorney asked.

Well... it could certainly kill them.

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The lawsuit alleges as many as 10 police officers pushed their way into the apartment after the grandson called 911. The police first stepped on her oxygen hose "until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation," and then police fired a Taser at her, striking her with only one prong, according to the lawsuit.

"The police then fired a second Taser, striking her to the right and left of the midline of her upper chest and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain and to pass out," attorneys alleged in the lawsuit. "The police then grabbed Ms. Varner by her forearms and jerked hands together, causing her soft flesh to tear and bleed on her bed; they then handcuffed her."

The grandson also was handcuffed and placed in a police car when he protested police attempts to Taser his grandmother, the attorneys alleged. He was freed to go with his grandmother in an ambulance to the El Reno hospital.

So... thoughts? She may have been trying to just kill herself and keep the police away from her when she threatened them with the knife; on the other hand, she may have been trying to go for "suicide by police". Either way I think the force they applied seems excessive.

The person I really feel the most sorry for is the grandson, who was just trying to help and protect his grandma, and got handcuffed and likely humiliated for it. Poor kid.

Now to watch as the usual suspects wank themselves blind at the thought of tasering little old ladies.

Don't taze me sonny-jim!

I love this bit:

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"Even if you reasonably believe someone's going to commit suicide, do you Taser them?" the attorney asked.

If they can't be talked out of it and are waving knives around, yes. Yes you do. You taser someone and consequentially restrain them, they're not dead, are they?

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"Even if you reasonably believe someone's going to commit suicide, do you Taser them?" the attorney asked.

Well, it depends. One of my mother's carers was telling me about how she visited one of her clients, an 85-year-old woman, to find herself being threatened with a knife. In that sort of situation, you do what you have to in order to get clear. Age is no guarantee of safety - old people can be scary dangerous, too.

In the carer's case, what she did was to run out of the house as fast as she could and never go back - and instruct the company supplying carers that that particular client not be visited by them again. Apparently, her family were not pleased, but really could the company risk their staff's lives like that?

What gets me is that one of cops stepped on the oxygen hose. You know, oxygen, that necessity of life? What the hell was that about?

Lady Anne wrote:

What gets me is that one of cops stepped on the oxygen hose. You know, oxygen, that necessity of life? What the hell was that about?

Cops have big feet?

Basically a way to kick her while she's down.

Cops couldn't take down an 86-year-old bedridden grandma without tazering her? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Something is not quite right here.....