Robbery suspect shocked twice with Taser before he died

Officers first heard screams and the wail of a car horn. Then they spotted a man wedged in a vehicle’s window as he struggled with a woman behind the wheel.

That was the scene Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell described to reporters Tuesday, some 12 hours after an officer tried to subdue James Carney III, 48, with a Taser. The attempt didn’t work, Blackwell said. Carney kept punching, choking and even biting the 41-year-old woman who had stopped at a Shell gas station to use the ATM at about 10 p.m. Monday.

Officer Anthony White then deployed the Taser a second time.

Carney stopped assaulting the woman, went limp and died shortly after, police said. An investigation is under way.

The incident marks the fourth police-involved death this summer in Cincinnati, and the third for the city police department specifically. In each CPD instance, police officials said that the officers involved acted appropriately, responding to suspects who were either armed or in the midst of an attack.

“Officers should be forced to use force,” Blackwell said Tuesday. He added that the initial investigation indicates that White indeed was forced.

Carney has had a series of run-ins with law enforcement, some of which stemmed from violent crimes, according to court records. He was convicted last year of sexual battery, landing him on Ohio’s Sex Offender Registry. He also had been arrested on charges of robbery, falsification and possession of drug paraphernalia over the years.

In 2010, Carney was charged with domestic violence for attacking one of his daughters. Though he was targeted with a restraining order in that case, the charge ultimately was dismissed.

Blackwell said that those previous run-ins don’t matter much. What matters is Monday night’s encounter, and the disturbing scene that he said police officers encountered.

Michelle Prince had just withdrawn cash from the ATM at 30 E. Liberty Street when Carney appeared and demanded the money. He wedged himself between the ATM and her vehicle, and began swinging, Blackwell said.

Prince fought back, holding the money she’d withdrawn away from him with her right hand while swatting at him with her left, Blackwell said. Carney kept attacking her.

“She was very scared, distraught,” said Cincinnati Police Captain Mike John said. “She was appreciative the officers acted as quickly as they did.”

Once Carney collapsed, his body remained wedged in the car window, pinning the woman inside. John said that three officers had to lift and move the vehicle, freeing both her and Carney, who was treated at the scene by medics before being transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

He was declared dead soon after.

Investigators aren’t yet sure why the Taser wasn’t initially effective, John said. It’s possible the first darts didn’t penetrate the skin. Or it could be that Carney was under the influence of drugs, which can render Tasers ineffective.

“His erratic behavior suggests there may have been some type of narcotic involved,” Blackwell said. The Hamilton County coroner will run toxicology tests as part of the impending autopsy, but the results won’t be ready for several weeks.

“We think the policy was followed,” said Blackwell, who described Carney as having been shot in the arm and lower back. “We think the officers acted reasonably and acted according to their training and with leadership and direction.”

White, the officer, joined the force in December 2007 and is “one of the best,” John said. He is shaken from the incident, officials said, and has been placed on a seven-day leave, as is standard procedure when an officer is involved in a fatality.

Carney is at least the seventh person to have died since 2006 in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky after police employed a Taser against them, according to Enquirer archives.

Cincinnati police began carrying Taser guns in 2004 a year after Nathaniel Jones, 41, died in police custody. Jones had PCP and cocaine in his system when he struggled with police in a White Castle parking lot in November 2003. He died after his heart, which was enlarged, gave out as six police officers struck him with their batons.

Procedures specifying when and how to use Tasers were implemented by the Cincinnati Police Department in a 2012 use-of-force policy change to reduce the likelihood of serious injury or death in Taser incidents.

Officers are supposed to use Tasers to subdue suspects that are actively resisting arrest, or to defend themselves or others from active aggression, according to the department’s manual.

Taser International, the device’s manufacturer, estimates that Tasers have been used more than 2.8 million times. In 5.4 percent of those instances, officers would have been justified to use lethal force, the company maintains. The company also estimates that Tasers have saved more than 150,000 people from death or serious injury.

Whether that figure is accurate is speculative, Blackwell acknowledged, but the chief said he is sure that the use of Tasers has saved lives in Cincinnati.

Still, the devices are controversial. More than 540 people died between 2001 and 2012 after police used a Taser on them, according to the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International.

Justin Mazzola, a researcher with the organization, said he is working to update those statistics. He said that Tasers have caused about 120 more deaths in the last three years, an average of 40 deaths annually.

Mazzola said that Tasers should only be used in situations where there is a threat of serious injury or death. The organization is calling for federal regulations in law enforcement Taser use.

Some departments, including the University of Cincinnati Police Department, have banned Taser use. In the UC case, the ban came after an officer used a Taser on an 18-year-old suspect who then went into cardiac arrest and died in August 2011.

Reporter Amber Hunt contributed to this story.