S-th Florida

V"

Sun-Sentinelocom
NEWS

Hollywood death casts light
on police use of taser gun
By John Holland
Staff Writer

Posted January 29 2002
HOLLYWOOD · A mentally ill or drug-crazed man goes on a rampage, police jolt him with a 50,000-volt electric
gun, and the man dies. Suspicion falls on the gun.
That scenario, repeated Sunday night in Hollywood, has caught the attention of police locally and around the
country who are quick to defend the taser weapon as the best nonlethal weapon available. They say there is no
evidence anyone has ever died from being struck by a stun gun like the one used in Hollywood.
Vinnie Delostia died Sunday night after a struggle with Hollywood police in which they zapped him in the chest
with a electric gun. Investigators are awaiting a medical examiner's report, although police Lt. Tony Rode said it
appears drugs killed Delostia.
Taser International, a brand name for the electric shock device used to stun suspects, is used by more than 1,100
police departments nationally, company spokesman Steve Tuttle said Monday. It operates by firing two electronic
darts, packing 50,000 volts, onto the body of suspects, knocking them down and incapacitating them for at least five
seconds.
Because the amperage is low, the shock cannot cause permanent injury, the company said.
One of Taser's strongest supporters is Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Sid Heal, who has gained a reputation for
testing and introducing innovative, nonlethal forms of weapons.
"Two things that occur together are not necessarily connected," Heal said. "This is the single best, most effective
form of nonlethal weapon, by far. If that [Hollywood death] had been from a Taser, it would have been the first one
in history."
Medical evidence is murkier. A 1991 study by the University of Southern California said it found at least one death
from the original Taser device, whose technology is the basis for the Taser International gun used by Hollywood
police. Taser International is only 8 years old, and no deaths have been linked to its product, Tuttle said.
Several people have died after being hit by a stun gun, research shows, but in nearly every case drugs have been
found in the victim's system. Last month in Hamilton, Ohio, police stopped using the stun gun after a man died, but
they resumed when autopsy results showed his death was from a cocaine overdose.
One area open to debate is whether the guns are harmful to pregnant women and their fetuses. Last month a woman
stunned by Chula Vista, Calif. police gave birth to a stillborn baby two days later.
A medical report said the cause of the death was inconclusive, although the mother tested positive for cocaine.
"We haven't seen any medical evidence that a Taser has ever caused a death or injury to anyone," Tuttle said. "There
is no physical way our Taser can put out enough power to do that type of damage. It can't happen."
John Holland can be reached at jholland@sun-sentinel. com or 954-385-7909.