Wichita Police Department uses taser on deaf man who could not hear them
More news on tasers, this time out of Wichita, Kansas. Kevin Myles, President of the Wichita Branch NAACP, reports the following from the Wichita NAACP Blog.
On November 20th, a man by the name of Donnell Williams, 39, was at home alone . Mr. Williams is hearing impaired, has a glass eye, and walks with a slight limp. He was taking a shower when 4 officers responding to a call of 'shots fired' knocked on his door. Mr. Williams did not (and could not) hear them and he continued to shower.
When he exited the shower, he walked into his living room, dressed only in a towel to find 4 Wichita Police Officers, one of which was carrying a bullet proof shield. Mr. Williams saw the officers gesturing to him, but could not hear what they were saying so he motioned towards his hearing aid which was sitting on his dining room table.
When Mr. Williams turned to get his hearing aid from the table, he was shot with a taser gun by one of the officers. (remember; he was wearing only a towel, and motioning towards his hearing aid which was sitting on the table)
After he was shocked by the taser, he continued to gesture towards the table and the officers allowed him to get his hearing aid. The officers realized that they had a bad address and apologized for breaking down his door and tasering Mr Williams, then suggested that he get a sign or a sticker so that people would know he was deaf.
These stories are becoming more and more frequent, especially the use against African-Americans. Though tasers are usually non-lethal, the indiscriminately use of this weapon on black folks has surpassed the level of acceptable. The AfroSpear, which Kevin is a part of, has been monitoring taser use in recent months. As more info becomes available on this front I will make sure to post it here.
Also see the entire post at the Wichita NAACP Blog where Kevin speaks of actions the branch is taking to assist Mr. Williams.
