Taser Intervention Stops Trouble During Mall Festivities

No one wants to use lethal force on the mentally ill, even when their behavior spirals out of control. Fortunately, Tasers provided a non lethal intervention when a Clackamas, Oregon man went ballistic.

The twenty-four-year-old, who is believed to be both schizophrenic and bipolar, escaped from his dad late morning on December 2. The distraught father was attempting to get some help for the son who was off his meds and out of control.

The unnamed fellow leapt from the vehicle, which was still moving at the time, and ran into the Clackamas Town Center mall. He pounded on the windows of a mall security car and threatened the guard before hitting the windows of a sandwich shop.

Meanwhile, the man’s father had called 911 and reported his son was out of control and had not been taking his meds. In spite of warnings by deputies and intervention attempts by the young man’s father to calm him, the fellow refused to back down.

A nearby shopper, Donovan Dombrowsky, pushed his children into the store when he heard the ruckus. He reported, “That’s when (the deputy) pulled out his Taser and the kid said, ‘Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?’ And the officer just Tased him.” Dombrowsky praised the deputies for intervening in a situation which could have gotten much worse.

Shortly afterward, the young man stopped breathing. By then, however, paramedics had arrived on the scene and revived him. It was not his first confrontation with local authorities.