Apr. 27, 2005 – Police are reportedly investigating the death of a Suffolk County, New York man who died after police repeatedly shocked him with an electrical shock weapon. According to a police spokesperson, a preliminary examination of the victim, John Cox, found that he had alcohol and cocaine in his system as well as risk factors for heart failure at the time an officer used a Taser device to subdue him. The actual cause of death is still unknown.
More than 70 Taser victims have died since June 2001 after, though in most cases, the device was not found to be the primary cause of death. Opponents of the handheld weapons criticize the absence of clinical trials studying the shocking devices’ affects on people under the influence of drugs or with various medical conditions.
