Coroner’s jury to rule on Taser death

Friday, June 25, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

A Clark County coroner's jury was to determine today whether a Metro Police officer's actions were justified, excusable or criminal in a struggle that officials said led to the death of a 26-year-old man in February.

Officer Reggie Rader shocked William Lomax with a Taser stun gun several times while trying to restrain him, police said.

Lomax died at Valley Hospital Medical Center nearly 20 hours after the struggle. The primary cause of Lomax's death was cardiac arrest during restraint, with PCP intoxication and bronchopneumonia as secondary causes.

He had approached some apartment security guards at the Emerald Breeze apartment complex near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Washington Avenue and asked them to call an ambulance because he felt ill, police said. The guards determined he might have been under the influence of drugs.

Rader arrived at the complex on an unrelated matter a short time later. He offered to help the guards and waited with them until the ambulance arrived.

Lomax allegedly began fighting with Rader and the guards, and Rader hit him with a Taser stun gun several times while trying to restrain him, police said.

He was hospitalized and died the next day.

The coroner's office ruled last month that Lomax's death was a homicide, meaning his death was caused by another person by either criminal or noncriminal means.