A MAN died of a heart attack after being repeatedly shot with a Taser in one of the first uses of the weapon in NSW, but police omitted it from official records, including on the man's death certificate.

Gary Pearce, a violent, mentally-ill 56-year-old, died about two weeks after being shot with a stun gun when he threatened police with a frying pan in May 2002.

The link between his death and his being shot by a Taser could have been used as evidence of the risks of the controversial weapon, but was only made public by the NSW Ombudsman on Tuesday.

The Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, yesterday admitted he only learned of the Taser link on Tuesday night, when he was given a copy of a scathing report by the Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, into the use of stun guns.

The revelation comes on the back of a growing body of international research that draws links between the weapon and a series of deaths.