May 29, 2010

Taser Death: Carl Johnson (Baltimore, MD)

It's happened again. Another unarmed citizen killed by taser-happy police. Carl D'Andre Johnson, 48, got into a fight with a state trooper and two Baltimore County police officers after he crashed his Toyota pickup truck. A Maryland state trooper was the first on the scene. Police say that Johnson did not cooperate with the trooper's commands. Evidently, he tried to escape and when he couldn't escape in his car he began to yell obscenities and quarrel with the state trooper. [see VIDEO]

Two Baltimore County police officers entered into the fray. The three law enforcement officials then began a series of events that included pepper spray and two 50,000 volt changes of taser gun electricity into Johnson.

Shortly after he was electrocuted a second time, county police say Johnson lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Johnson was an accomplished architect and religious man, his brother said, not the type of person who would challenge police and wind up dead after receiving a shock from a taser gun.

For Carl Johnson's brother, the circumstances don't add up.

"The way this is being described is completely out of character ... unprecedented," said Gene Johnson, 42, as he traveled to a Georgia airport to come to Baltimore. "He never had an ounce of trouble."

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