Father speaks out on death of son

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

The man who died Monday after being shocked with a Taser gun during a struggle with Metro Police was not violent and had been left with broken limbs after being hit by a car recently, his father said, so he doesn't understand how he could have been a threat to the officers.

"He was my best friend and a beautiful boy," Sanford Tucker said before his lawyer asked him not to speak to the media.

He said his son, 47-year-old Keith Tucker, "was on medication because he got hit by a car and had broken arms. He was laying on his bed in his underwear and these guys came in..." Sanford Tucker said, his voice trailing off.

Metro Police could not be reached for a response to Tucker's allegations this morning.

Keith Tucker was pronounced dead at 11:54 p.m. Monday at Desert Springs Hospital, just over an hour after his roommate had called 911 because Tucker was acting erratic in the condominium they shared near Sandhill and Flamingo roads.

Police said Tucker punched and kicked one of the two officers who responded to his roommate's call, then resisted when the officers tried to handcuff him.

The officers hit Tucker with their batons then shocked him with a Taser gun two to five times in an effort to calm him down, police said. He stopped breathing and died a short time later.

Investigators said Tucker appeared to be on drugs, possibly PCP. The coroner's office has not yet determined his cause of death; medical examiners are awaiting the results of a toxicology test which is expected to take several weeks.

Tucker lived with his father and another man. Sanford Tucker, who returned to Las Vegas Tuesday night, was in Hawaii when his son died.

Sanford Tucker owned counterculture clothing stores in the 1960s in San Francisco and now sells 60s poster art through a Web site. His son helped him with the business, he said.

Sheriff Bill Young said the way Keith Tucker was handled complied with the department's use-of-force policy. The officers involved are on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of a coroner's inquest. Their names are expected to be released today.

Tucker is the second person to die this year after being stunned by a Metro Police officer's Taser gun.

In February, 26-year-old William Lomax died after a Metro Police officer used a Taser during a struggle. A coroner's inquest jury cleared the officer, but jurors determined the Taser could have played a role in Lomax's death.

The Taser was used on Lomax while he was handcuffed, and Young said he is considering whether to change the departmental policy allowing officers to use the weapons on people who are cuffed.

In light of the deaths of Lomax and Tucker, the American Civil Liberties Union has called for stricter guidelines on when Metro officers can use a Taser on a person and how many times officers can shock a person.