Police officers in Oklahoma who reportedly tased a man more than 50 times in 2019 were charged Thursday with second-degree murder almost a year after his death, the Washington Post reported.
Jared Lakey, 28, died on July 6, 2019, after police officers Joshua Taylor, 25, and Brandon Dingman, 34, of Wilson, Oklahoma tased him over 50 times on July 4, the Post reported. Dingman and Taylor face charges of second-degree murder in connection to Lakey’s death and were taken into custody after turning themselves in on Thursday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Dingman and Taylor were released after posted bond, set at $250,000 each, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Video of the 2019 incident showed “gross recklessness,” according to a lawyer representing Lakey’s parents.
“I have never seen a more disturbing video. After watching it, I cannot understand how the city allowed officers who exhibited such gross recklessness, resulting in a man’s death, to continue working. We have great confidence the evidence supports the charges” attorney Spencer Bryan told the New York Times.
Lakey’s family filed a public records lawsuit and a federal civil rights lawsuit following his death, though both cases are pending, the Post reported. Bryan said the charges against the officers were fitting since the officers claimed to only have used their tasers four times and court documents say otherwise.
A year after a man died after being shocked with a Taser dozens of times, two Oklahoma police officers have been arrested, officials say. https://t.co/LDAChmB9iM
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) July 3, 2020
Court documents show Lakey died after suffering multiple heart attacks combined with “law enforcement use of electrical weapon and restraint,” the Post reported. The officer’s use of tasers “greatly exceeded what would have been necessary or warranted by the attendant circumstances,” according to the documents.
Data logs show Taylor used his taser 30 times while Dingman used his taser 23 times, the Post reported. The officers tased Lakey for around four minutes of a less than 10 minute time period. (RELATED: Georgia Passes Hate-Crime Law On The Day Of Rayshard Brooks’ Funeral)
Dingman said they used force “to attempt to keep [Lakey] from getting up and giving him the opportunity to come at Cpt. Taylor or myself,” the Post reported. Neither Dingman nor Taylor attempted to restrain Lakey using their hands, as they were trained to do and the affidavit said Lakey never assaulted the officers, according to the Post.
“The footage reveals numerous instances of both officers using their X26P Tasers to send electrical shocks through [the victim’s] body in an apparent attempt to persuade him to put his hands behind his back as he lay on the ground,” court documents said, according to the Post.
Police use of tasers has drawn national attention since the death of Rayshard Brooks in June. Brooks fell asleep in a Wendy’s drive-through in Atlanta, Georgia and failed a field sobriety test on June 12, according to video of the incident. Brooks appeared to resist arrest and was warned that he would be tased if he did not comply, before taser was deployed, video showed. Brooks was shot three times shortly after.
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