MEDICAL EXAMINER’S REPORT MAY SHED LIGHT ON SULTAN MAN’S DEATH 25-year old died Sat. after being shocked by police Taser September 07, 2010
Sign outside the Pastime tavern in Sultan, facing U.S. Highway 2. Sign was erected Saturday Sept. 4th in memory of Adam Colliers who died the same day. SkyValleyChronicle.com staff photo. Click to enlarge
Wider shot of Pastime tavern shows Adam Colliers sign in context. This view is facing West on U.S. Highway 2. SkyValleyChronicle.com staff photo. Click to enlarge
25-year old Adam Colliers of Sultan. It is not known yet why he died. Click to enlarge
(SULTAN, WA) -- The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s office is scheduled to do an autopsy this week on the body of a Sultan man who died after a confrontation with police on Gold Bar over the weekend.
It is hoped the autopsy will shed some light into why 25-year old Adam Colliers died suddenly after being shocked with a police Taser weapon in the early hours of Saturday morning.
On Tuesday of last week a man from Spanaway, WA died after police used a Taser weapon on him in a similar situation. The Medical Examiner’s office has ruled cause of death for the 27-year old as inconclusive and more tests are pending.
For friends and family members of Adam Saturday was a very sad second day of the long holiday weekend.
They were in mourning for the passing of a friend and family member under circumstances that left many questions.
On Saturday night friends of Collier’s lit candles and gathered near the small apartment he occupied on the corner of 5th & Main Street in Sultan in the same building that houses the Pastime Tavern.
The same tavern that had the words “Adam Colliers RIP” on a lighted promotional sign outside the building and facing U.S. Highway 2.
What is known about Collier’s death is that early Saturday morning he became the second person in the region to die within the week after being shot with a police “Taser” gun, a weapon that was designed to be a non-lethal means of subduing a suspect.
Colliers died early Saturday morning after he was shocked with the often used “stun gun” during a confrontation with Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies in Gold Bar, according to Everett police Sergeant Robert Goetz.
Goetz said Snohomish County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the 500 block of 1st Avenue West in Gold Bar around 1:30 am Saturday on a report of a disturbance.
911 operators received two calls concerning a man who the callers said was running up and down the street yelling and causing a loud ruckus.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived they said they were immediately confronted by a combative Colliers who charged at the deputies and fought with them, according to Goetz.
During the fight one of the deputies shot Colliers with his Taser gun, said Goetz, and after the young man was hit the officers discovered he was not breathing.
They immediately started CPR and called for an aid car.
When the fire department aid car arrived EMT’s continued CPR and then took Colliers to Valley General Hospital in Monroe where he was pronounced dead.
Later news reports said Colliers was in Gold Bar because he spent most weekends at a house there as a caretaker for a paraplegic family friend.
Gold Bar resident Sharon Williams was quoted in broadcast reports later Saturday as saying Adam cared for her paraplegic brother on weekends and that she was distressed that a small man Collier’s size - about 120 pounds - could not be subdued by two larger law officers without the officers using a shocking device on the smaller man..
The county SMART team (Snohomish Multiple Agency Response Team) is investigating the incident and will attempt to determine why Collier was allegedly confrontational when police arrived when family members and friends say that was not normally in Adam’s nature.
The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave as is standard in such cases.
One of the deputies is a three-year veteran of the force he other has four years of law enforcement experience. Both are under 30 years of age.
TASER DEATHS STUDIED
A Taser, which looks a bit like a handgun, fires wires with metal prongs at their tips.
When those prongs hit and attach to a person's clothing or skin, a high voltage (but low current) electrical shock is delivered, contracting a suspect’s muscles and allowing police to make an arrest.
Make that “usually” the device downs the suspect and allows officers to quickly subdue the suspect. On some suspects Tasers have been known to have no visual effect at all.
The devices have become controversial in recent years, as they have led to some deaths. Some opponents call Tasers a torture device that can be easily abused.
In this video shot by an Alaska TV station, a reporter volunteered to be shot with a Taser to experience the weapon's effects:
A recent research study done by Dr. William P. Bozeman of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., looked at more than 1,200 cases of Taser use from six police departments across the country from 2005 to 2008.
In those cases, Bozeman found that an overwhelming majority of the people shocked by the devices did not suffer serious injuries.
In contrast, Amnesty International's latest report on Tasers, titled, "USA: Less Than Lethal?" links 334 deaths to Taser use between the years 2001 and 2008.
Bozeman, a Johns Hopkins-trained emergency doctor, said his study was not funded by Taser International but by the National Institute of Justice, an agency of the federal government.
In each of the six target cities, a doctor was allowed access to police reports and also the suspects' medical reports, Bozeman said.
By examining the reports, the doctors determined that, in 1,201 uses, 99.75 percent of those shocked suffered no injury or even mild injuries.
That means that deaths occurred in only one quarter of 1% of the takedowns with Tasers.
In the study, there were only three significant injuries.
Two were head injuries from falls after being shocked and a third person contracted rhabdomyolysis, or a breakdown of muscular tissue.
However researchers said the man's cocaine use, running and fighting with police and excessive heat that day possibly caused the death of the man.
The study found two deaths of suspects while in police custody, but researchers aid in both of the cases the Taser was used, along with other forms of force options and the person collapsed and died later.
The Taser was found to be not related to either of those deaths.
Amnesty International said it recognizes the overall, the death rate compared to the number of reported Taser field uses is relatively low however, the organization said it remains concerned that “Tasers are used in many situations where the degree of force deployed is unwarranted."
Amnesty's report said earlier studies do not “appear to address the issue of the potential danger from multiple or prolonged shock."
WHAT A TASER IS
"Taser" refers to an electrical weapon trademarked by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company known as Taser International.
The word Taser stands for "Tom A. Swift Electrical Rifle."
The Taser was developed by Jack Cover, a contract scientist on NASA's Apollo moon program in the 1960s.
Inspired by his favorite childhood book series - Victor Appleton's Tom Swift - Cover drew up plans for a non-lethal weapon like the one the series' main character used.
In 1993, Rick and Tim Smith, who launched Taser International, worked with Cover to improve his design and introduced the device the next year.
Since then, use of the word Taser has became part of the common American language.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A TASER IS FIRED
When a Taser’s trigger is pulled, two wires shoot out of the device at the suspect from up to 35 feet away. At the ends of the wires are probes that either embed in a person's skin or cling to clothing.
~ When the probes hit, an electrical pulse is delivered for five seconds, causing involuntary muscular contractions in the subject.
~ At the end of the first pulse, police tell the person to roll onto their abdomen, so they can be handcuffed. If they do not comply, they may be shocked again.
~ Once a person is arrested, police remove the barbs and call EMTs to the scene.
~ The person is taken to the hospital to be checked out. If the barbs remain in the person after police try to remove them, they are removed at the hospital.
~ The Taser is equipped with a chip that records information on each use, which can be used in court if someone alleges they were shocked multiple times.
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