Police use of stun guns under renewed scrutiny after CCTV shows teenager being tasered

Updated

Police use of stun guns to subdue suspects is under renewed scrutiny after an unarmed Sudanese-Australian student was tasered while handcuffed and surrounded by six officers in Sydney.

The altercation at Sydney's Blacktown train station occurred on June 20, when 17-year-old Einpwi Amom allegedly swore at police and ran off.

Mr Amom, who fled war-torn Sudan with his family in 2003 and settled in Sydney's west, had been out with a cousin on the night and decided to meet with friends at the station, where they often hung out.

The HSC student had been drinking, and earlier in the night had been asked by police to move along.

CCTV footage from the station shows a police officer approaching Mr Amom, who runs, fearing arrest.

An officer chases him to the other side of the station where the teenager falls and hits his head, knocking himself unconscious on the stairs.

'If you resist again, you'll be tasered again'

"I started running and then they chased me," Mr Amom recalls.

"I was running, I was drunk and then I slipped - boom! Stacked it and hit my head."

The teenager was handcuffed and dragged down the stairs, where footage shows him lying motionless for nearly two minutes, only coming around as more officers arrive.

"I woke up again, I was like 'What the hell is going on?', and then I see coppers holding me, twisting my arm, my leg," he said.

"I was like, why are you doing this? It was like a gang just attacking me."

The footage shows Mr Amom struggling with police while a female friend of his begins filming the struggle on her mobile phone.

I was like, why are you doing this? It was like a gang just attacking me. Einpwi Amom

When officers bring the teenager to his feet he resists and, as commuters look on, an officer fires his Taser at the handcuffed teenager.

As Mr Amom writhes in pain, an officer says: "If you resist again, you'll be tasered again."

Although visibly weak, Mr Amom is hauled to his feet and forced to walk down stairs, with an officer saying, "Stand up and walk or you'll be tasered again."

Officers say their use of force was justified, however the teenager still struggles to understand his treatment.

"When I was tasered, I was already handcuffed," he said.

"There was six police officers and I still got tasered."

Ultimately, Mr Amom was charged with six offences: failing to comply with a direction, offensive language, resisting police officer in the course of duty and three counts of assaulting a police officer.

However, last week - after viewing the CCTV footage, as well as the mobile phone and Taser camera vision, the Parramatta Children's Court magistrate dismissed all six charges against Mr Amom.

He ruled that the officers acted outside the lawful execution of duty when placing him under arrest.

Usually minors before the Children's Court cannot be identified, however Mr Amom, now 18, and his mother consented to appear on 7.30 in order to tell his story.

The teenager's mother, Achol Amom, says her son was treated like an animal, adding: "I'm not happy with this."

Taser use in question since death of Brazilian student

Police use of Tasers has been in the public spotlight since the death of Brazilian student Roberto Laudisio Curti in Sydney last year.

After that incident, it was recommended that Tasers be used only if there was a real threat of danger to police officers or passers-by.

Fifteen months on, civil libertarians are appalled that another young man has been tasered while surrounded by police.

Stephen Blanks, of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, says the incident involving Amom appears to be a clear misuse of police power.

"I wonder why, when somebody is handcuffed behind their back, the police cannot manage a situation without tasering a person," he said.

"Tasers are supposed to be a last resort. They really should only be used when police are facing serious danger, and this didn't look to me like one of those situations."

Meanwhile, NSW police said in a statement that the magistrate had made no adverse findings against them and that and no formal complaint was made.

Topics: police, law-crime-and-justice, blacktown-2148, nsw

First posted