Man dies after police officers repeatedly tase him in horrifying video
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The disturbing body cam video of a shirtless and unarmed man being tased by Tulsa police was released on Sunday, and many people have questions.
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Police responded to multiple calls of a belligerent man, later identified as Joshua Wayne Harvey, who was reportedly kicking and screaming before running away on August 24. Police pursued Harvey as the 26-year-old man fled the scene.
Harvey then ran into the nearby Arvest Bank where police tried to prevent Harvey from entering the building but he pulled on the door handles so violently that the heavy glass shattered and pelleted his head and body, leaving him bloodied, the Daily Mail reports
Two officers then tased Harvey, which knocked him to the ground.
Harvey pleaded for his life.
“Take the Tasers off. Take them off. I’m dying. He’s about to kill me,” Harvey says in the recording.
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The man got back up and was quickly charged again with another taser shot.
As Harvey waited for an ambulance he kept screaming out “help,” “no” and “Jesus.”
In the video, the suspect is heard screaming.
Towards the end of the recording, one of the officers says ‘how many times did we hit him like 10 friggin’ times?’
Harvey died three days later.
The Tulsa police department says it is waiting for the state Medical Examiner’s Office report to determine the cause of Harvey’s death.
Use of Taser
In a similar case, a Georgia family wants justice after a newly released video revealed that Rome police officers laughed as a drunken 22-year-old Juan Porter was tasered.
The case stems from a 2017 arrest where Sherriff’s deputy, Sgt. Matthew Battle was terminated after the sheriff’s office took swift action and determined he had violated policy. But the new video shows Battle possibly wasn’t the only officer who used excessive force and taunted Porter.
The county now faces a lawsuit over excessive force allegations.
“It is outrageous,” said Felicia Curry, Porter’s mother. “It did some damage to my son mentally.”
“That’s not enough,” Curry said about Battle getting fired. “All of the people that participated in that video … I need something done about all of them.”
Harvey’s family is waiting on a full report from the Medical office.
