- Originally published by the Chicago Tribune on February 9, 2005 [here]
By Ofelia Casillas and David Heinzmann
Tribune staff reporters
A 14-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest Monday and was
unconscious at a Chicago hospital Tuesday after police shot him with a
Taser stun gun, officials said.
The boy, a state ward who lives at a residential group home on
the North Side, became enraged Monday morning when he was asked to
remove his baseball cap. He then broke four windows and battered three
workers at the home run by Uhlich Children's Advantage Network, Chicago
police said.
Police said the boy lunged at a sergeant, who shot him with the Taser, a weapon that applies a powerful electrical jolt.
Officials in the Cook County public guardian's office gave a
different account. They said that when police arrived the boy was no
longer violent and was sitting on a couch.
"It sounds really crazy," Public Guardian Robert Harris said. "To
harm him even more [after] they were called to help? I'm not trying to
say this kid was some saint in the situation, but it just makes you
wonder."
Tasers have become increasingly controversial, especially when
used on children. In Miami-Dade County, community activists became
outraged last year when a police officer used a Taser to subdue a
6-year-old boy holding a shard of glass.
On Monday, the original call for help was for paramedics to treat
the boy's right hand, which had been bleeding, county officials said.
An Albany Park District sergeant, who had the Taser, arrived with
beat officers and Fire Department personnel. They all tried to subdue
the boy and "encouraged him to submit to arrest and to receive medical
treatment for the injuries to his hands," police spokesman David
Bayless said.
Police said they talked to the boy for 10 minutes in the
facility's third-floor common area, warning him that he would be shot
with the Taser. The boy then lunged at the sergeant, swinging at him,
prompting the sergeant to fire the weapon, Bayless said.
After he was shocked, the boy fell to the floor and "didn't come
to," Bayless said. Paramedics immediately started to give the boy
medical attention. An ambulance transported him to Children's Memorial
Hospital, where he remained Tuesday, officials said.
The hospital declined to comment, but the public guardian's
office said the boy was still sedated and showing signs of improvement
Tuesday.
Deputy Police Supt. Barney Flanagan arrived afterward and
conducted interviews with more than a dozen witnesses and concluded
that the sergeant acted properly, Bayless said.
County officials said it appeared that the group home's workers
had done their best to treat the boy and handle the incident. The boy
came into state care in 1999 and has lived at the Uhlich home since
June 2003, Harris said.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is aware
of the incident and is "closely monitoring" the situation, said
spokeswoman Diane Jackson. Uhlich CEO Tom Vanden Berk declined to
comment while the incident was still under investigation.
The boy has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery
to personnel and one count of aggravated battery to a police officer,
police said.