Officer Who Tasered Girl, 10, with Mom's OK Is Suspended for Not Taping Incident
Called to an Arkansas home after the mother of a 10-year-old girl couldn’t get her to take a shower, an Ozark police officer wound up shocking her briefly with a electronic stun gun last week as she was “violently kicking and verbally combative.”
Then Dustin Bradshaw handcuffed the now-unresisting child and put her into a patrol car, reports the Associated Press. The unidentified girl wasn’t injured, and her mother gave advance permission for the officer to use the Taser on her, according to the officer.
Yesterday, however, Bradshaw was suspended for a week, with pay—because he had violated police department protocol by not using a video camera on the Taser to record the incident, states the article. It relies on information from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Police Chief Jim Noggle said it was safer for the officer to use the stun gun on the child “for less than a second” than to struggle with her to try to force her into handcuffs, which could have injured her arms or legs.
“We don’t want to do things like this,” he says. “This is something we have to do. We’re required to maintain order and keep the peace.”
