Reno police on Sunday posted footage of an incident in which Washington County Sheriff’s deputies were trying to seduce a suspect with a Taser dart because the man apparently did not comply with orders. of deputies, said Deputy Chief of Robo Tom Robinson.
Reno police officers were trying to help the deputies seize the suspect, Robinson said.
“At one point, while a deputy was giving oral orders to the defendant, the defendant stepped up to the deputies,” Robinson said.
The deputy fired his Taser and missed the suspect. Instead, the Taser struck the knee of a Reno police officer, who once fired his firearm, and struck the suspect in the shoulder.
Reno police did not explain how they determined the officer unintentionally fired his weapon. The department did not release the name of the officer or suspect.
The shooting will be investigated by an outside law enforcement official, police said.
“In the coming months, the Reno Police Department of the Interior will review all relevant information in this case and will determine whether the officer’s tactics, drawing and use of a deadly weapon, and use of force are within policy and standardized. procedures of the Reno Police Department, “said Travis Warren, Reno Police Department’s public information manager.
In the video, police say the incident will be investigated to determine if the officers are following protocol.
Authorities said images of crucial parts of the incident were hidden, “either because of the location of [the officers’ cameras] or because the camera was inadvertently obstructed by equipment. “
Reno police said the incident, which took place on the morning of July 26, began when Reno police responded to a request for help from a deputy from the Washoe County sheriff’s office, Robinson said in a video statement that the footage of the body camera accompanied.
When Reno police arrived, they found deputies who turned Tasers on the suspect, Robinson said.
Officials on the video camera can be heard telling the suspect, “Can you please get down on your knees, let’s talk about this, let’s figure this out.”
The suspect can be heard on video saying, “I will turn around, I’m sorry.” He then steps towards the officers and says, “Here are my things,” while placing a number of objects on the ground, including clothing items and what appears to be a wallet.
In the video, at least four officers can be seen pointing Tasers at the suspect. That was when a Washoe County replacement ran the suspect around him.
The deputy fired his Taser but missed and one of the Taser darts hit a Reno police officer in the knee, “causing him to inadvertently fire his firearm, hitting the suspect in the right shoulder,” according to Robinson.
Shortly afterwards, the suspect can be seen sitting on the ground and bleeding, saying, “My shoulder, my shoulder.”
One Reno police officer may be heard asking, “Who was it?” Another replies, “I think it was me. I was shot with the Taser and I thought … f ** k.”
Joseph Giacalone, a retired sergeant and professor in the New York Police Department and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told CNN after checking the footage that he saw two main problems: it danger of officers setting up a situation for crossfire and the lack of supervision of a sergeant.
“There needs to be a supervisor and take control of the scene,” he said. “That’s an important aspect of it. I’ve seen it somewhere else. If you look at the Minneapolis incident with George Floyd, there was no supervisor on the scene. … If we had better supervision of some from these things, we can prevent other accidents than other problems. “
Having a supervisor or sergeant on the scene would have provided Reno officers with more direction “so you don’t have five or six police officers with guns out or Tasers out,” Giacalone said. “You would have one or two who would be the person who would use a Taser or use a gun if you had to. That would limit a situation like this.”
According to Reno police, the suspect was transported to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury and has since been released. He was also issued a citation for reckless driving, obstruction and resisting an officer by the Sparks Police Department – the department that handles the investigation into the incident, Robinson said.
The officer who fired his weapon was also taken to a hospital to remove the Taser probe from his knee, Robinson said.
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