Man with heart ailment dies after being shocked with Taser

AP | February 19 2005

HOUSTON A 52-year-old psychiatric patient who had a heart ailment died after Harris County constables shocked him with a stun gun.

Chief Deputy J-C Mosier says the two constables went to the man's mother's home yesterday to serve a mental health commitment warrant.

Mosier says the deputies used the Taser after the man resisted their efforts to take him away.

The man continued to struggle with the deputies, but he then started having trouble breathing.

He was taken by ambulance to a hospital -- where he later died.

Mosier says the deputies knew the man had health problems but were unaware of his heart ailment.

Tasers temporarily paralyze people by using two barbed darts to deliver a 50-thousand-volt jolt.