Coroner rules man’s Taser death a homicide

Stephen Curran

Friday, Oct. 8, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

The Clark County coroner's office has ruled that the death of a man Aug. 2 whom Metro Police officers shocked with a 50,000-volt Taser was a homicide.

Meanwhile Sheriff Bill Young said the ruling concerns him and that he did not believe the officers acted improperly.

A coroner's inquest is scheduled for Oct. 22, when a jury will decide whether or not the officers' actions were justified.

Keith Tucker, 47, who died about an hour after a struggle with two officers, suffered cardiac arrest brought on by the attempted restraint, the coroner determined.

Police said they used their batons and a Taser gun to subdue Tucker after he became violent and erratic.

Officers Patrick Denny and Mark Hutchinson had been called to Tucker's home near Flamingo and Sandhill roads because Tucker was acting in an irrational and violent manner, according to police.

Coroner Michael Murphy said because Tucker's death occurred at the hands of another person, Tucker's death is a homicide, making a coroner's inquest necessary.

Young has publicly disagreed with the coroner's findings, saying drugs likely contributed to Tucker's death.

In his experience, Young said, drugs and alcohol combined with a struggle can aggravate existing heart problems.

"They (the officers) didn't do anything out of the ordinary in my view," Young said. "If the man had a heart attack, he could have had one walking down the street."

Tucker was the second man in Metro's jurisdiction to die after officers used a Taser to subdue him. In February 26-year-old William Lomax died after officers used a Taser on him during a struggle. An inquest jury cleared the officer in that incident, but jurors determined the Taser contributed to Lomax's death.

In another incident Officer Jeremy Krough was fired in September after a Metro investigation found he had improperly used his Taser. The stun gun is designed to be a non-lethal alternative to traditional weapons.

Denny, 31, and Hutchinson, 26, were placed on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of the inquest.

"Now it's up to the jury to determine if the officers did it intentionally," Young said. "Hopefully they'll agree with me."