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A partially-sighted, one-legged man who had consumed a substantial quantity of rum was accused of attempted murder after he set about four American policemen single-handed earlier this week brandishing an assortment of cutting and stabbing weapons. The understandably alarmed plods subdued their assailant by the use of a Taser electroprod gun.
The Pueblo Chieftain reports today on the fracas, which took place on Monday in Colorado. According to court statements, four Pueblo cops responded to an emergency call made by a member of the public.
On arrival, the officers found James Ray Howard, 42, "shirtless on his front lawn" while brandishing a steak knife and a 12-inch metal spike. Howard later told police that he had consumed "a pint of rum" and unspecified prescription medication prior to the encounter. He is reportedly "legally blind" and has had one foot amputated, besides suffering from "other maladies".
According to the cops, on sighting them Howard uttered "threatening remarks" and made at them in an "aggressive manner". His aspect was sufficiently alarming that the cops understandably declined to engage in any hand-to-hand combat, despite their assailant's presumably limited abilities.
One officer discharged his Taser, planting the weapon's twin barbs into Howard's head and shoulder and zapping him with a crippling electric current. The legless one-legged scuffler was then disarmed and "brought under control".
The encounter was apparently sufficiently upsetting that the responding plods originally recommended a charge of attempted first-degree murder against Howard, but in the event he was written up only for first-degree assault. Perhaps having in mind the cops' advantages in numbers, limbs and un-addled mental processes during the Monday dustup, prosecutors eventually settled for a plea of guilty to a misdemeanour resisting-arrest charge.
The Chieftain reports that Howard is eligible for probation, and will be sentenced in November. His mother reportedly told police that he had been upset because his wife departed overseas some time ago and he hasn't heard from her for two months.
There was nothing in the report, but it's hard not to speculate that Howard may be keen to get home in order to feed his parrot. ®
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COMMENTS
Tasers
Only to be used as an alternative to lethal firearms, or in the hands of a bunch of roid raging rozzers with nothing better to do than use implements of torture against disabled people.
@ Kain Preacher - A fool!
Oh good, another one!
Its not hard is it? All you have to do is to READ the article and THINK BEFORE YOU TYPE!
At no point does it mention a wheel chair; not even the merest suggestion of one - this is all in your head! Indeed the article clearly stated that he moved towards the officers. Granted, it doesn't say if he was crawling on his belly but I suspect had he done so that would probably have become the main thrust of the story .... no?
Yes, the tagline uses the emotive "leg-less" description (I also alluded to sensationalist reporting) but the article clearly states he was ONLY MISSING A FOOT and not the whole leg - again, the implications of which I clearly described in my first posting - and you don't appear to have understood a word of it.
It is because of people like you that I repeatedly have to state "BASED ON THE INFORMATION SUPPLIED IN THE ACCOUNT" ..... and still that's not enough for the hard of thinking.
Moron!
If you wait patiently another bandwagon should be arriving shortly - try not to trip as you climb on!
let me just get this right...
..a bunch of Reg readers who weren't there are absolutely convinced that 4 cops confronted with an agressive, pissed-up, drug-affected shirtless man waving 2 sharp weapons at them should have tackled him in hand-to-hand combat and, without doing him any injury, arrested him. And that this would have been better than tasering him (from which he seems to have suffered no real ill-effects).
My martial arts teacher also taught us some moves that were definitely NOT for use in any competition, but purely for self defense on the streets. He was 6 foot 6 of solid, ex-marines muscle, seemingly afraid of no-one, and his view was that knives are too unpredictable - take on someone with a knife and one unlucky move means you die. Those aren't good odds.
I object to "over-enthusiastic" policing that gets reported in the UK and the US as much as anyone else, but I do have to say that when I've seen US cops in action in real life they generally give people every opportunity to do what they are told. If this guy came straight at them this actually seems a perfectly reasonable response.
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