TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Police shootings after electrical weapon seizure: homicide or suicide-by-cop
JO  - International journal of legal medicine
A1  - Kroll, Mark W.
A1  - Ross, Darrell L.
A1  - Brave, Michael A.
A1  - Williams, Howard E.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - PURPOSE: Risks of handheld electrical weapons include head impact trauma associated with uncontrolled falls, ocular probe penetration injuries, thermal injuries from the ignition of volatile fumes, and weapon confusion police-involved shooting. There is also an uncommon but critical risk of a shooting after a subject gained control of an officer's electrical weapons. <br><br>METHODS: The authors searched for police shooting incidents involving loss of control of TASER® weapons via open-source media reports, crowd-sourced internet sites, litigation filings, and a survey of Axon law-enforcement master instructors. <br><br>RESULTS: The authors report 131 incidents of subjects attempting to or gaining control of an officer's electrical weapon from 2004 to 2020, 53 of which resulting in a shooting. These incidents demonstrated a risk of 11.8 shootings per million electrical weapon discharges (95% confidence limits of 9.0 to 15.1 per million by Wilson score interval). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The use of electrical weapons presents a rare but real risk of injury and death from a shooting following a subject's attempts to gain control of the weapon.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0937-9827
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-021-02648-2
ID  - ref1
ER  -