Death renews focus on use of stun guns

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:06 p.m.

Metro Police have a weapon in their arsenal designed to stop but not kill suspects. But it is a weapon they are hesitant to talk about.

The weapon is a stun gun, also called a bean-bag gun or "a low-lethality" weapon, which fires a projectile commonly called a "bean bag."

The 2-inch square fabric bags, fired from a standard 12-gauge shotgun, are filled with 40 grams of lead shot. They are designed to distribute the force of the shot over 7 square inches so they do not penetrate into the body.

They are called low-lethality because if a person is shot in the proper part of the body and at close enough range, they can kill despite being designed to stun.

Until recently, only the Metro SWAT team was equipped with the bean bags, and they were to be used only in certain circumstances by specially trained officers. Now, some patrol officers -- Metro won't say how many -- are being trained in the use of the stun guns.

Metro Police spokesman Steve Meriwether said the weapon was not available at a fatal shooting by police Wednesday morning, and if one had been, the situation was not conducive to its use.

The victim was 8 to 10 feet from an officer when he was shot -- a range that could have been fatal even with a bean bag.

How widespread the use of the tactical weapon will be when it is fully introduced into the department is not being revealed.

"We can't discuss the exact tactical use," Meriwether said. "The whole idea is surprise. If we get too much publicity, it would destroy the element of surprise and destroy the effectiveness of its use."

Meriwether said it is essential for police to control situations involving confrontations in order to protect the public and officers.

If a person facing a shotgun thinks it may be loaded with a bean bag rather than a live round, he pointed out, the person may be more aggressive and endanger innocent lives.

The bean bag, becoming increasingly popular with animal-control officers, is designed to flatten as it is fired at a velocity of 230 feet per second, according to Mike Keith, owner of MK Ballistic Systems of Hollister, Calif., which sold the original weapons to Metro. MK Ballistic lost the contract recently to a lower bidder.

Upon impact, he said, the bag collapses and the shot, acting as a "fluid medium," distributes "kinetic energy over the surface contact area, delivering a solid blow comparable to a line drive from a baseball or a punch from a professional boxer."

Normally, the impact does not injure the person who is shot, Keith said.

"It's been effective in saving a lot of lives," he said.

The range of the standard bean bag sold by MK Ballistic is 30 to 100 feet. Any closer and the shot can be deadly. Any farther away and accuracy becomes difficult, which can also make the shot fatal.

The bean bag was invented in response to the 1970 Kent State shooting in which a student was killed by the National Guard.

"There was a call by the federal government for a less lethal weapon," said Keith, who worked for the company several years after the introduction of the bean bag.

The bags were used primarily by police to quell rioters during the Vietnam protests of the 1970s.

Keith said the first one used in Las Vegas was in 1992 during rioting sparked by the verdict in the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles.

His company now supplies many police departments with the bags, among them departments in Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and Phoenix. He also has contracts with the U.S. Army and Air Force, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshal Service.