A 36-year-old Washington man died after Arlington County police say they used a Taser on him as he was struggling with a police officer on a Metro platform.
Police had gone looking for William Randolph Bumbrey III at the Pentagon City Metro station Sunday night on the suspicion that he had been shoplifting at a nearby pharmacy, Arlington County police spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said. When officers found Bumbrey on the station platform at about 8 p.m., police say he became combative and refused to follow the officer’s commands. As the officer approached Bumbrey, the man lashed out, striking the officer and the two began to struggle. Police said the officer then pulled his Taser and deployed it at Bumbrey, but it failed to stop the 36-year-old, and it took a second officer to finally get him into handcuffs. Paramedics were called and Bumbrey was taken to the hospital as part of normal Taser procedure, Nosal said. He was pronounced dead at the hospital after showing signs of a serious medical situation before paramedics arrived. It remains unclear whether the Taser actually hit Bumbrey, Nosal said, emphasizing how he kept moving even after apparently receiving the heavy electrical shock. Investigators are waiting to hear back from the medical examiner on what killed Bumbrey, she said. Police and the medical examiner are investigating whether Bumbrey was on drugs at the time. A Taser fires two probes from up to 35 feet away, the company’s Web site says. Once the probes make contact with the body, 50,000 volts — roughly equivalent to what’s used in electroshock therapy — are fired into the target typically causing a person to fall to the ground after losing muscular control. There are 100 police officers who are equipped with Tasers in Arlington County, Nosal said, and each officer has gone through training to use the weapon. The training includes being shocked by a Taser, so officers understand it’s not a weapon to use lightly, Nosal said. Arlington County police officers deploy Tasers less than 20 times a year, Nosal said. In 2008, the most recent year final county Taser use statistics were available, officers fired the electric shock weapon 12 times. No one else has died in Arlington after police have deployed the weapon.
