Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.
The wife and mother of the 26-year-old North Las Vegas man who died a day after being shocked with a Metro Police officer's Taser gun are blaming the officer for the man's death.
William Lomax was shot with a Taser gun four or five times while struggling with security officers, paramedics and a Metro Police officer -- 11 people in all -- Friday evening.
He died Saturday afternoon at Valley Hospital.
"I'm not trying to paint an angelic picture of my son," Joyce Charleston said Monday. "I'm just saying I don't care if he was high or drunk, there was too much force used to restrain my son."
Lt. Tom Monahan cautioned people into rushing to judgment as to how Lomax died, saying the Clark County coroner's office will make that determination. The results are expected to be available in about a month.
Lomax, who was allegedly combative with security officers and paramedics, was repeatedly shocked by Officer Reggie Rader's Taser around 6 p.m. Friday outside the Emerald Breeze apartment complex on West Monroe Avenue near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
Lomax had asked security guards to call paramedics for him because he was sick. The security officers determined Lomax was under the influence of drugs.
Illegal drugs were found on Lomax, Monahan said, but he refused to say exactly what they were because no criminal charges were filed.
Rader arrived at the complex on an unrelated matter, offered his help to the security guards and waited with them for paramedics, police said.
Lomax, who was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 225 pounds, "initially was fighting with the security officers so he was Tased," Monahan said, and he fell to the ground. After the five-second jolt, Lomax began to fight again and was shocked a second time, Monahan said.
He allegedly continued to struggle as he was handcuffed and was shocked again, then again when he allegedly fought with authorities while they were removing the handcuffs so they could put in soft restraints on an ambulance stretcher.
Lomax was shocked with the Taser while one hand was cuffed because he was fighting with his free hand, Monahan said.
Lomax is the first person to die after being subdued with a Metro officer's Taser gun.
Although Lomax was not under arrest when the Taser was used, Metro officials will conduct an investigation in the event that the autopsy report indicates the Taser jolts caused or contributed to his death, Monahan said.
Tasers send 50,000 volts of electricity through the body, immobilizing the person who receives the shock. The Tasers Metro uses have a range of 21 feet, and fire darts attached to electrical wires that deliver the charge.
Capt. Jim Owens of Metro's training bureau said people usually don't need to be shot with a Taser gun more than once.
"Generally if you get one shot it really hurts and you comply," Owens said, so additional shots aren't necessary.
However, Owens said, a shot from a Taser "is not debilitating and they can jump right back up again and receive more."
Metro's policy on Taser use, which became effective Jan. 15, doesn't offer guidelines on the number of times an officer can shoot someone with a Taser.
It does say officers should give a warning before firing the Taser and should avoid hitting areas such as the head, face and neck.
Steve Tuttle, spokesman for the Arizona-based Taser International, said there have been 40 cases in which suspects have died after being subdued with a Taser, but Taser technology has never been listed as a cause of death in any of them.
Typically when suspects die in custody after being shot with a Taser gun, the cause of death is an overdose of drugs, particularly cocaine, or a prior health condition.
But a British study released in 2003 titled "The Advanced Taser: a Medical Review" cited one Los Angeles case in which a Taser jolt and an overdose of PCP were officially listed as contributing to the death of a man with a severely debilitated heart. The man had previously refused to have a Pacemaker operation.
In a couple of cases within the five months, people who died after getting subdued with a Taser gun were found to have underlying conditions that caused their deaths.
Earlier this month, a Florida medical examiner ruled that a man who was hit with a Taser in December died of cardiac arrest unrelated to the jolt. He had a bad heart and a police chase caused him to have a heart attack, according to news reports.
In addition, October, a Texas man's autopsy report indicated his fatal heart attack after being shot with a Taser was related to heart disease.
Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said he isn't in the position to judge whether it was appropriate for the officer to use his Taser in his case, but eyewitness reports of Lomax being hit with the Taser while handcuffed raises serious questions.
"The department needs to appreciate the fact that these are powerful weapons and they can cause serious injuries," he said. "In fact, they were causing significant injuries to officers who were using Tasers on each other in the training academy."
Metro officials discontinued that practice several months ago after a number of officers were hurt when they fell to the ground after being shot with a Taser.
Lakisha Lomax, who would have celebrated her third anniversary to William -- whom she called "June June" -- on March 3, said the officers' behavior is "unacceptable."
"He told them he wanted medical attention," she said. "If someone is requesting medical attention you don't beat him. This is ridiculous."
She has two children, ages 2 and 3, and "they're not old enough to understand. They keep asking, 'Where is June June?' He had not lived his whole life yet."
People who witnessed the struggle told Lomax's family that he wasn't struggling when he was hit with the Taser, Charleston said.
She declined to comment on whether her family planned to file a lawsuit, saying they are concentrating on dealing with their grief and burying him.
"This is too much. They went too far here," she said. "That was my only son."
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