- Police Brutality Watch

Five Toledo police officers including a sergeant are facing administrative charges for improperly handcuffing a man who died after he was shocked nine times with a Taser. Police and Lucas County jail authorities were involved in the incidents. The police department's internal affairs bureau concluded the officers did not use excessive force in the arrest Jan. 31 of Jeffrey Turner, 41, and that the use of a Taser at the time of his arrest was justified, Chief Mike Navarre said yesterday. However, the investigation showed that in transporting Turner to the jail, he was handcuffed behind his back and those cuffs were connected to oversized cuffs that were placed on his ankles, which is contrary to department policy. Chief Navarre said video from the Toledo Museum of Art, where the arrest occurred, showed Turner kneeling with his hands cuffed behind his back, another set of cuffs on his ankles, and a third set of cuffs connecting the other two sets. Turner died after he was shocked five times by police and four times by jail correction officers in incidents that occurred about three hours apart. Police approached Turner outside the museum after security there reported a suspicious man loitering outside the closed museum for more than 40 minutes. Officers said they used a Taser to subdue him after he refused to cooperate and fought being taken into custody. After he was carried into the jail, Turner was booked and ate a lunch before becoming agitated again. He refused attempts to restrain him, and corrections officers shocked him with a Taser. A nurse sent to Turner's cell, as a matter of procedure to check on him after the stun gun's use, discovered he was unresponsive. He died a short time later. [more]