This happened a few years ago but the videos was just released. I'll summarize and you can read the story at the link below. The cops take a Linwood Lambert to the hospital because he's coked out of his mind and hallucinating. Guy freaks out and runs at hospital, cops tased and arrest him. The take him to jail where he dies from a drug overdose. No charges were brought against the police and his sister is suing the police. When three Virginia police officers put Linwood Lambert in a squad car around 5 a.m. on May 4, 2013, they said they were taking him to the ER for medical attention because he was speaking delusionally. Just over an hour later, Lambert died in police custody. LINK TO STORY Officer Mann remained briefly at the hospital, where he was recorded talking to a hospital worker, who asked if the police were going to bring Lambert inside. “We were,” the officer said, chuckling, “now he’s going to jail.” “He’s bleeding like a hog,” he said, “we thought he was crazy, and then he finally told us he was on cocaine.”... Sweeney also stresses it is illegal to taser someone who is restrained and in custody. “When someone is restrained,” he said, “you’re not allowed to taser them.” The South Boston Police Department’s own rules state Taser use “is no longer justified once the subject has been restrained.” When a tasered suspect needs medical help, those rules state officers may “take the suspect to the emergency room at the Halifax Regional Hospital,” and should do so “before” taking the suspect to jail. (The rule is General Order Number 211, effective since May 2007.) ... Jim Cavanaugh, a former ATF agent and NBC law enforcement analyst, reviewed extensive videos of the tasing incident. He concluded the officers deployed “improper use of force in every regard.” “It’s excessive force through excessive use of a Taser,” he said, “on a prisoner who is in a dire medical condition, and is restrained already, and that’s very disturbing.” [video=youtube;93K0CW1aF-Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93K0CW1aF-Y[/video] Are the police responsible for the death of Linwood Lambert? If so to what degree? Should the officers face jail time or should it be more of a financial punishment to the city? I think the police are responsible for someone in their custody. They thought he was bad enough off to take him to the hospital, why not get him checked out before taking him in. They were at the door. I think the officers actions were borderline but I doubt they would be convicted of any wrong doing. I do think the city owes this family compensation for the death of this man. Sure he may have laid in that motel room and died but once he was in the custody of the police his well being is in their hands. Seeing as they thought he needed to go to the hospital before he freaked out and they were at the door of the hospital, the officers should have taken him inside.
