A police officer fired a Taser which hit a suspect and the officer’s partner during an altercation on September 27, according to CWB Chicago.
The Chicago officers were trying to arrest Joseph Sangster, 38, regarding a misdemeanor assault complaint outside a service station in Chatham, the outlet said Wednesday.
Prosecutor Rhianna Biernat explained that a store worker previously filed the assault report and called 911 when the suspect showed up on the premises again.
“But Sangster pulled away from the officers and brandished a knife as the cops tried to arrest him, according to Biernat. One of the officers held Sangster at gunpoint and ordered him to drop the knife. He eventually dropped it but then became uncompliant and physically fought with one of the cops,” the outlet reported.
The scene was recorded by a nearby Chicago Police Department’s security camera and can be viewed on CWB Chicago’s website.
Sangster reportedly grabbed the officer’s neck or collar while the officer’s partner aimed the taser at the pair as they struggled and then fired.
Sangster was hit in the leg and the officer was hit in his rear which caused the men to be still for a few seconds.
The officer eventually got Sangster on the ground before help arrived at the scene.
In May 2016, the Chicago Police Department announced that “starting this week every police officer responding to calls is now trained to use a Taser.”
According to its General Order, the department defined a taser as “a device used to control and subdue a subject through the application of electrical impulses that override the central nervous system and cause uncontrollable muscle contractions.”
Per the CWB Chicago report, Biernat also noted Sangster told officers he was holding the knife because the station’s clerk approached him carrying a baseball bat.
Following the incident, “Prosecutors charged him with aggravated assault of a peace officer, unlawful use of a knife, resisting police, battery, and assault,” the outlet said.
In October, a similar yet more violent incident happened when Arkansas State Police (ASP) troopers used a stun gun on a suspect after a motorcycle pursuit, Breitbart News reported.
Authorities said the biker was carrying a can of gasoline in his backpack. When the suspect jumped off the bike and ran from an officer, he fell and burst into flames. However, officials said at the time he was expected to survive:
As the crime wave continues sweeping across President Joe Biden’s (D) America, citizens are “more likely now than at any time over the past five decades to say there is more crime in their local area than there was a year ago,” Gallup reported in October.
“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five-percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972,” the article read.