Editor’s Note: When a hyperactive suspect dies after a TASER was used, the TASER is often pinned as the cause of death. In his article, Resources for sudden in-custody deaths, P-1 Columnist Greg Meyer offers a different point of view: “A small number of people who flip out on coke, meth, PCP, and in some cases schizophrenics who refuse to take their medication, manage to over-exert themselves right into a heart attack. “Some doctors advise that the TASER ought to be the restraint mechanism of first resort, because it is the person’s hyperactivity that is killing them, and the TASER is the quickest way to stop the hyperactivity.” … Read the Full Article |
By Kevin Blanchard; Acadiana bureau
LAFAYETTE- A man who barged naked into a Waffle House on Sunday morning, apparently under the influence, was stunned by a Taser device by city police officers and died hours later in a hospital, a police spokesman said.
An autopsy will determine what actually caused the death of 29-year-old Terrill Enard, of Carencro, Cpl. Paul Mouton said.
About 5 a.m. Sunday, the manager of Motel 6 on Evangeline Thruway called to report a disturbance in one of the rooms where Enard was located.
Enard then jumped from a second-floor balcony, injuring his leg, then entered the hotel lobby and removed his clothes, Mouton said.
Still naked, Enard left the hotel property - before police arrived - by getting into a vehicle with an unknown driver, Mouton said.
Ten minutes later, police received a call from the Waffle House down the road.
Enard, still naked, had gone into the Waffle House and became “irate” with an employee, Mouton said.
When Enard tried to “grasp” the female employee, another employee intervened and tried to control the suspect until police arrived, Mouton said.
Police tried to take Enard into custody and give him first aid for his injuries, but he was “violent and aggressive,” Mouton said.
Officers then used a Taser on Enard, but the electrical shock device had no effect, Mouton said.
Normally, the electrical shock of a Taser renders a person’s muscles immobile and subdues them enough to be taken into custody, Mouton said.
Enard appeared to officers to be under the influence of some unknown substance, Mouton said.
Eventually, Enard was taken into custody and transported to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital where he was listed in critical condition, Mouton said.
Enard died at 9 p.m. Sunday.
Detectives are still investigating the matter, Mouton said.
In October 2004, Lafayette Police briefly discontinued use of Tasers after a stunned suspect died after being booked into jail.
An autopsy later determined that man died from a heart malfunction caused by alcohol and cocaine use.
Police were reissued Tasers, but only after the machines were equipped with a device that monitored their use.
In November 2005, a man jumped naked from his second-story apartment and repeatedly rammed his head against a wall. Police officers used a Taser to get him under control - he died 10 hours later at a hospital.
A review of the case determined that man died because of his head injuries.
Also last year, a Houston man won an $82,500 settlement after suing Lafayette Police for using a Taser on him 17 times in an attempt to make him regurgitate drugs he allegedly swallowed during a 2004 arrest.
That incident prompted Lafayette Police to change their policy on Taser use so as to prohibit Tasers to be used to preserve evidence.
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