TASER Gun Prevents Further Harm to a Calgary Family

A 27 year old man attacked his family with a knife on Sunday in the Canadian city of Calgary. The man stabbed his 24 year old sister several times before police officers were summoned to the scene on a domestic violence call. The man was choking his 52 year old mother when police officers arrived.

According to police officers, the man was in “a highly emotional, agitated, and violent state.” The police officers who arrived on the scene felt that there was a significant risk of injury or fatality so they responded proactively.

The police officers used a TASER gun on the man and, as a result he ceased his attack on his mother and let her go. The police officers immediately arrested him.

The man has had encounters with local police officers in the past and is known to them. Drugs and alcohol were not deemed to be factors in this incident. The man has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for intimidation for a dangerous purpose, and uttering threats.

Both the mother and the sister were transported to a hospital in stable condition.

Police officers cite this as a classic example of why TASER guns are available to law enforcement as tools to keep the peace. Agitated, uncooperative, irrational and violent, the man in this incident needed to be subdued and, if a TASER gun had not been available, could easily have been shot with a lethal weapon.