Man Dies In Police Custody: Dallas Man Dies After Being Shot By Police With Taser Gun

A man died in police custody after he was arrested Monday night in Dallas. CBS 11 News reports that officers from the Dallas Police Department responded to a disturbance call around 7:30 p.m. on North Jim Miller Road, in the Buckner Terrace neighborhood. A man there was behaving erratically after allegedly breaking into someone’s car.

When police ordered the man to get out of the car, he momentarily opened the car door and officers tried removing him from the vehicle. The man resisted arrest, fighting with officers — who called more police to the scene. Police confirm that one officer shot his Taser at the man. He started showing signs of distress after that.

Dallas Fire-Rescue rushed the unidentified man to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, where he was pronounced dead.

According to the report, four police officers had contact with the man before he died in their custody. The investigation is ongoing.

Another man died after a police officer used a Taser on him Monday morning. New York Times reports that a man in the Bronx was wielding a pair of scissors at his apartment. His girlfriend called police because he was acting erratic and high on drugs. A sergeant reportedly used a Taser gun on Mario Ocasio, who refused to drop the scissors.

Ocasio went into cardiac arrest after he was placed in the ambulance. It’s noted in the report by officials that he was high after ingesting synthetic marijuana, also known as K-2. Medical workers had also given the man, who soon died in police custody, medication to help calm him down.

The role of the Taser in Ocasio’s death isn’t clear as of yet. His girlfriend told authorities that he “had a bad dose of drugs” on Monday.

The dead man had served 20 years in state prison for robbery and firing at responding Bronx police officers. Neighbors knew him in the apartment building as a drug user. In fact, one neighbor — Radhames Ventura — said police officers were frequently paying visits to the building just to “check on the place.”

Ocasio’s death marks the second one in police custody in “less than a month in the northern Bronx precinct,” the report states. Denis Reyes, 40, also went into cardiac arrest when police officers took him into custody. His cause of his death is still under investigation by the medical examiner.

The men who died in police custody after having a Taser used on them are still the subjects of investigation by medical examiners.

[Image by Christopher Furlong / Getty Images]