Former soldier dies after being Tasered by Wales police
A former British soldier with post-traumatic disorder has died after being Tasered by police in south Wales.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an investigation into the incident. It said officers were called to Llanelli over concerns about the welfare and behavior of Spencer Beynon, 43.
Beynon was a former member of the Royal Welsh Regiment and served in the army for 15 years, including touring Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to some witnesses, Beynon had a knife and stabbed himself and his dog before police arrived. Police, however, suggested that other people may have been involved in the incident.
“Police arrived to find a man in the street in a distressed state. During the incident, a Taser was discharged,” the IPCC said.
“The man became unresponsive and an ambulance was called, but he was pronounced dead at the scene,” it added.
The incident will once again raise attention to the use of Tasers, especially on people with mental health problems, as they have caused hundreds of deaths around the world despite claims that the weapon is non-lethal.
Taser guns fire two darts and temporarily disable people with a five-second discharge of 50,000 volts that contracts the muscles and bewilders the nervous system. The weapon might also cause cardiac arrhythmia or ventricular fibrillation, which can lead to heart attacks or cardiac arrest.
In 2014, Police in England and Wales used Tasers more than 10,000 times and in more than 1,700 occasions, Home Office figures showed.
Some two thirds of those targeted by Tasers were mentally ill and black people were three-times more likely to be Tasered than whites, the figures also said.
Earlier this year, the UN questioned the UK government for allowing the police to use Tasers against children following a rise in the number of incidents, in which Tasers were fired on minors.
In 2013, police tased a 23-year-old man who had poured petrol over himself and was holding a lit match. The officer used the gun to stop him but caused a fire that burned the man to death.
In 2012, Tasers were used against a blind pensioner after police mistook his white stick for a sword.
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