News / Human Rights

UK police officers taser black man after mistaking him for suspect

Saturday, 21 January 2017 5:20 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 21 January 2017 6:58 PM ]

UK police captured on a video as tasering a black man.

Britain's police watchdog has launched an investigation after video footage has emerged of two officers firing a stun gun into the face of a black man, who works with police as a race relations adviser in Bristol.

The video posted on newspaper websites on Friday, shows two officers tasering Judah Adunbi, 63 outside his home last Saturday. The footage, recorded by a passerby, shows Adunbi fall to the ground after a Taser is discharged.

"The way I fell backward on the back of my head. I was just paralyzed. I thought that was it. I thought they were taking my life," he said later.

Adunbi is a prominent member of Bristol's black community. The officers apparently had mistaken him for a wanted suspect, police claimed.

The footage shows officers approach Adunbi outside his home and ask him for his name. After Adunbi refused to tell them his name, saying “I've done no wrong,” the officers followed him to his door and fired the electric gun.

Adunbi, however, said, "At first you don't accuse someone of being someone else. You ask questions.”

"The first thing they should have done is come to me in a polite manner. The way they approached me - they were accusing me. That is wrong,” he added

He described the incident as “difficult” after all the years he has dedicated to improving the "relationship between the Afro-Caribbean community and the constabulary.”

Police “voluntarily referred a complaint about this incident to the IPCC [Independent Police Complaints Commission],” said Chief Superintendent Jon Reilly.

"We're aware of concerns within the local community and we take these concerns very seriously,” he added.

The IPCC commissioner, Cindy Butts, also pledged to “reassure the community that we will conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances.”

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