BOULDER, Colo. -- Boulder's police chief issued a letter Monday defending an officer's use of a Taser against a resident last month -- an incident that prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to ask the department to change its stun-gun policy.
Police fired two Taser rounds at Davis Ware on July 19 near the intersection of Dartmouth Avenue and Dover Drive in south Boulder after a group of people called police to complain that Ware, 26, was harassing them.
After police subdued Ware and arrested him on suspicion of harassment and obstructing a peace officer, the ACLU said it was contacted by several witnesses.
According to a letter the ACLU sent to Boulder police July 30, the witnesses said they saw the officer shoot Ware in the back with the electric probes as he was walking away.
"This use of force was excessive and unnecessary," chapter Chairman Judd Golden wrote. "It also appears to have violated the department's overly permissive policies, in that the individual was not in a 'defensive' posture and was retreating when he was shot."
Police Chief Mark Beckner disagreed with Golden in a letter he released Monday.
"Based on the totality of information obtained, witness statements, and evidence of where the Taser probes contacted the suspect, we do not find reason to believe excessive force was used or that our policy on use of the Taser was violated," the chief wrote.
He wrote that Ware was tense, confrontational and had his hands closed when approached by the officer. The officer only fired her Taser after Ware assumed a "fighting stance" with her and refused to obey orders to sit down, Beckner wrote.
She fired a second time, the chief wrote, when the first deployment of her Taser gun didn't subdue Ware. She said Ware was yelling at her and that she felt threatened. The officer reported that she fired at Ware while he once again faced her in a fighting stance.
Beckner wrote that a woman at the scene told police she saw the officer fire into Ware's back. He also wrote that a man said the same thing, though after further questioning wasn't able to recollect which way Ware was facing when he was shot.
A third witness -- a 16-year-old male -- told police Ware ran away from the officer after she tried to get him to sit down. He didn't see the first round fired from the officer's Taser gun but said the second round hit Ware while he was facing the officer, Beckner wrote in the letter.
The chief wrote that two Pridemark ambulance employees responding to the scene told police they recalled seeing probes embedded on the front side of the suspect, one in the arm and one in his left cheek. Neither employee could recall any probes in the suspect's back, Beckner wrote.
"Based on all of the information and evidence available, we do not believe the evidence supports the witness account that the Taser was deployed into the back of the suspect," the letter reads. "Furthermore, based on the actions of the suspect, both the attempts by the officer to gain compliance prior to deploying the Taser and the use of the Taser itself fall well within our policy guidelines."
On Monday, the ACLU's Golden said Boulder police violated their stun-gun policies because Ware was shot in the face -- a part of the body officers are told to avoid -- and there were witness accounts that he was trying to move away from the officer.
Ware was clearly unstable and not responding to orders, Golden said. In his July 30 letter, Golden described Ware as "apparently mentally impaired."
"This officer should have seen that this person needed help, not be subjected to potentially deadly force," he said.
According to Boulder police protocols, officers are not permitted to pull out a Taser "simply because a suspect is running away."
Department policy states that Tasers can be used when someone offers "defensive resistance, other than flight, and the officer reasonably believes that use of a (Taser) is less likely to cause injury to either the officer or the individual than other means of gaining compliance."
"Non-compliance, in and of itself, should never be grounds for deploying this type of force," Golden said.
But Beckner wrote that the officer stated that "not only was she fearful of him assaulting her, but of where he may go and what he may do if she let him go."
He wrote that the Boulder Police Department will continue to review its policy regarding Taser use.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
