Officer Russ Thornton Tasers 91-Year-Old Man With Alzheimer’s In Minneapolis Nursing Home, Man Dies Two Months Later [Graphic Video]
A new video is going viral online due to the surprising content. As seen below, an Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office undersheriff, Russ Thornton, used a Taser to subdue a 91-year-old man named “Lee” in a nursing home, as reported by the Daily Mail. The 91-year-old, who reportedly suffered from Alzheimer’s, tried to get away from the law enforcement officers at the nursing home in Minneapolis, Kansas because the elderly man did not want to leave the nursing home to go for a doctor’s visit. Instead of letting the elderly man leave the room or subduing him using gentler means, the officer tasered the old man in the back, which left him crying out in pain.
Warning: The following video contains footage that might be disturbing to some viewers.
Now that the incident is going viral, the public wants officials to take another look at the incident that occurred in March. The tasering event is under investigation by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, which initially reported that the 91-year-old Lee was violent. However, upon viewing the video, the general public is wondering if the elderly man was as violent as assumed and if his actions warranted him being tasered; a fact that could have led to Lee’s death two months after the tasering.
According to the New York Daily News, the video shows one officer trying to coax Lee to get up. The video’s audio displays the fact that one officer speaks about not wanting anyone to get hurt, nor wanting the need for anyone to get hit.
“Wow, okay, come here, it’s okay, relax.”
Eventually, one deputy screams “Taser” before Lee is tasered in the back with the Taser weapon. Then Lee is handcuff as he still screams in pain. The handcuffing allegedly broke the man’s wrist. Lee was eventually removed via a stretcher and taken to his doctor’s appointment. The officers had arrived at the Good Samaritan Nursing Center in Minneapolis after police received reports that Lee had assaulted a different nursing home patient.
Horrifying video shows cops TASERING a screaming 91-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer https://t.co/ewFcbmmnMy pic.twitter.com/PB6Q0NnHZx
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 23, 2016
According to Lee’s loved ones, the elderly man broke one of his wrists in the melee, and the taser likely weakened his heart. On Live Leak, a plethora of comments are flowing into the video-sharing website about the incident. Lee’s family did not want to be identified in public and did not say if they are going to sue anyone for the incident. Those family members claim that the tasering likely precipitated the man’s death two months later.
While the above video snippet showing the tasering of the 91-year-old Lee is making the rounds, the entire video of the incident lasts for 28 minutes. The footage runs from the point at which the sheriffs arrive until Lee was tasered and removed via stretcher. The incident happened on March 30.
Meanwhile, comments about the incident are flowing to social media and websites around the world as the video goes viral. According to KWCH, the Ottawa County sheriff is not in the office this week and could not be interviewed on camera.
“A 91 year old stuck in a nursing home doesn’t want to go to the doctor’s so some moron calls the cops to have him forcibly transported? WTF happened to death with dignity?”
“Would love to know who decided to use police in this situation when putting some Ativan in his OJ would have done just fine. Anyone can see just from the interactions he has dementia, he doesn’t even know where he is let alone respond to commands.”
“Last time I checked, if it was so serious that he needed to go to the doc, you could have a doctor come in, and if need be, sedate the patient and transport them with an ambulance to the hospital/doctor. Some cases, doctors even do ‘home visits’ to nursing homes, OR there even is a doctor present regularly.”
[Featured Image by Ari N/Shutterstock]
