A police officer shot a race relations adviser in the face with a stun gun after mistaking him for a wanted man even though he was stepping away from her and a colleague and had his hands at his side, a misconduct hearing has heard.

PC Claire Boddie drew, raised and fired the Taser electrical weapon in a single motion without aiming properly and did not issue a warning, the misconduct panel was told.

Boddie told the hearing she mistook Adunbi, a community elder in Bristol, for a man who was believed to be violent and carrying weapons. She said she thought he might use his keys to attack her and a second police officer. She claimed she believed he had been trying to escape and she thought he had punched her colleague – though she now accepts this had not happened.

Boddie said she had been aiming to hit Adunbi in the chest with the weapon and it was “regrettable” that it hit him in the chin. She told the panel that in the buildup to the firing she had taken Adunbi’s warning that he would put her colleague “to sleep” as a threat to kill.

The incident unfolded last year outside Adunbi’s house in Easton, Bristol. A video taken by a passerby was shared widely on social media and made headlines around the world.

Footage from the passerby and from the officers’ bodycams was played during the hearing and showed Boddie and her colleague, PC Darren Weston, approach Adunbi and ask him for his name.

Boddie told Adunbi: “You look familiar.” Adunbi refused to say who he was, informing the officers: “I’m not telling you my name, I’ve done no wrong.” He added: “I’m an African black individual living in my own city.”

There was a scuffle between Adunbi and Weston at his gate. The footage appeared to show Adunbi moving away with his hands at his side when the Taser electrical weapon was discharged by Boddie at close range.

Adunbi fell to the ground after he was shot and told the officers: “I’m nearly 70 … here’s my fucking ID.” The hearing was told that people hit with stun guns suffered “a sensation of intense pain” and the barb from the electrical weapon was removed at hospital.

George Thomas, who was presenting the case against Boddie, said it took only three seconds for the Avon and Somerset officer to fire. “It’s apparent from the footage that she moved very quickly from drawing to using,” he said.

Thomas argued that even if Weston had been punched, Boddie could have warned Adunbi that she would use the Taser electrical weapon and call for backup rather than opening fire. “She didn’t give him the opportunity by warning him. She didn’t give Mr Adunbi the opportunity to back off,” Thomas said.

He added: “There was no hesitation. She removes the Taser in a single movement and raises it. It doesn’t appear she took any care to aim it other than roughly in Mr Adunbi’s direction.”

Thomas also told the panel that Adunbi had been acting lawfully by refusing to give his name and felt intimidated because he had been mistaken before by police for the wanted man. Thomas said the force used by Boddie was unnecessary.

Giving evidence, Boddie insisted she believed Adunbi was the wanted man and had been using violence to try to escape. She said she was aiming for his chest, not his face. “It’s regrettable that the Taser hit the face,” she said.

Richard Shepherd, for Boddie, said she was a “fantastic”, long-serving officer with no blemishes on her record who had acted “honestly and instinctively” and brought a dangerous situation to an end quickly. “She is calm, she is trusted,” he said. “It is unlucky that the barb hit him in the chin.”

Adunbi has sat on Bristol’s independent advisory group, which forges links between the police and the community, and has worked with the Crown Prosecution Service’s local community involvement panel. Boddie was cleared of assaulting Adunbi in a criminal court in May.



The misconduct notice alleges that Boddie did not warn Adunbi before she fired and claims his hands were by his sides at the time. It says that at the moment she opened fire Adunbi had been moving away.

It alleges Boddie’s alleged actions constitute a breach of the standards of professional behaviour for the use of force. It says: “The alleged conduct taken individually or together, amounts to gross misconduct.” Boddie denies the allegations.

The hearing at Portishead in Somerset continues.