Knifeman dies as police zap him with Taser stun gun

By CHARLOTTE GILL

Last updated at 09:47 21 January 2008


A psychiatric patient has died after being blasted with a Taser stun gun.

Former dustman Justin Petty was zapped by police after threatening them with a nine-inch knife. They had been called to his elderly mother's home over reports that he was trying to kill her.

After being hit, the 31-year-old staggered back into the house and was found by officers suffering from knife wounds.

Scroll down for more...

Stun gun

He was taken to hospital but later died.

An investigation is now under way to establish how Mr Petty died. The matter has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Police said last night that Mr Petty, who has recently been released from a psychiatric unit, wounded himself after being shot with the Taser.

One other man has died in the UK after being shot by police with a Taser and a baton round but a post-mortem examination concluded the death was from natural causes.

An increasing number of police forces are using the high-voltage guns, which discharge a disabling electric shock, as an alternative to conventional weapons to subdue armed suspects.

Tasers have been used 450 times in the past five years in Great Britain and police say there have been no fatalities or serious injuries.

Armed police were called to the house in Goldington, Bedford at about 7pm on Saturday night.

Mrs Petty, 71, had managed to flee their terraced council home and sought refuge with a neighbour.

When officers arrived, Mr Petty - who had been discharged from the Weller Psychiatric Wing at Bedford Hospital - barricaded himself in his attic.

He threatened police with the knife. A Taser gun was used and he staggered back into the house.

Shortly afterwards officers went into the house and found the former council worker seriously injured. He was was rushed to Bedford South Wing hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Yesterday yellow marker signs were placed outside to show where the gun had been discharged.

Neighbour Terry Banthorpe, 32, said: "The first I knew was when his mother came through our door.

"She said: 'Help my son is trying to kill me.' He followed her and was carrying a knife with an eight- or a nine-inch blade but ran off when he saw our Rottweiller, Leah.

"I called the police and he was walking up and down outside our house as we waited.

"It took them 12 or 13 minutes to come. His mother was very worried. She said he had told her he was going to kill himself and take her with him.

"She escaped by saying she wanted a glass of water and while he went to their kitchen to get it she ran out to our house.

"When the police arrived they said he had barricaded himself in the attic. They checked that he could not get through to the other houses through the top."

Mr Banthorpe added: "I didn't even know he lived there. He was a bit of a recluse."

A Bedfordshire police spokeswoman said: "Armed officers went to the address after being called to a domestic dispute involving a mother and son.

"On arrival at the property police found the man in his thirties suffering from injury and armed with a knife.

"He threatened officers and as a result the taser was discharged.

"The man then retreated into the house alone and when found shortly afterwards by police officers he was in need of urgent medical attention because of subsequently self-inflicting serious injury to himself."

He was taken to Bedford Hospital where he died from these injuries.

The injuries from the Taser gun were "minimal", she added.

The spokeswoman said the IPCC would look into the incident tomorrow and decide whether or not to launch an investigation.

A post mortem is due to be carried out today. An inquest will be opened later in the week.

Human rights group Amnesty International has mounted a long-running campaign to outlaw Taser guns which it says are more dangerous than the authorities claim.

The organisation said Tasers pose a disproportionate risk to many of the most vulnerable - the pregnant, those with mental health or drugs problems or those with a heart conditions.

More than 270 people have died after being shot by Tasers in the US and Canada since 2001, and concerns about them have led a number of American law enforcement agencies to stop using them, Amnesty claimed.

In October last year, Canadian police attracted heavy criticism after officers shot 40-year-old Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski with a Taser at Vancouver International Airport.

Video footage showed officers firing at a distressed Dziekanski twice, 46 seconds after arriving on the scene, then physically subduing him on the ground. Dziekanski died at the scene.