Officer shoots 62-year-old woman in the back with stun gun, placed on leave

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida police officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation after he fired a stun gun into a 62-year-old woman's back during an arrest in a Tallahassee neighborhood, police said.

dwilson1911

Oct 1, 2014

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida police officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation after he fired a stun gun into a 62-year-old woman’s back during an arrest in a Tallahassee neighborhood, police said.

Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo called a news conference early Wednesday to announce the investigation after authorities obtained a video capturing the Tuesday afternoon incident that was shot by a citizen on a nearby porch.

“Based on the video, I have enough concerns to call for an internal investigation,” DeLeo said. “We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident. We want to be transparent with the community by sharing what we can at this point, including the video.”

The officer uses the stun gun around 2:30. WARNING: Video contains graphic language.

According to police, the officers were responding to recent complaints from citizens about drug deals in the neighborhood. The woman, Viola Young, approached one of the police cars parked on the narrow street to inquire about one of the people — two women and a man — who had been arrested.

The officer standing outside the squad car advised the woman to stay back. Police said that’s when Officer Terry Mahan approached Young and attempted to take her into custody.

Police said Young was medically cleared by paramedics and taken to the Leon County Jail. It wasn’t immediately known whether she has a lawyer or what she was charged with.