August 26, 2010

Taser Death: Eduardo Hernandez-Lopez (Las Vegas, NV)

The Nevada Highway Patrol are painting this as a case of 'road rage' gone wrong. Of course, we aren't able to ask 21-year old Eduardo Hernandez-Lopez what happened because he was electrocuted with at least 50,000 volts of electricity from the taser gun of an unidentified Nevada Highway Patrol trooper on Wednesday, August 25. [SOURCE]

According to the Nevada Department of Public Safety, the incident occurred more than two hours after a truck hauling sulfuric acid spilled the chemical and closed portions of U.S. 95 in both directions. Hernandez-Lopez got involved in a dispute with others during the hours of waiting for movement on the highway.

When officers arrived, they had a physical altercation with Hernandez-Lopez, whom they described as an "irate individual." During the altercation the man was shot by an unidentified trooper with a Taser, and troopers later noticed he was not breathing. These taser guns are 'stopping the breathing' of people on a weekly basis.

He was transported to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where he was pronounced dead yesterday evening at 7:30 p.m.

It should be interesting to see how this taser-related death story rolls out over the coming days and weeks.

Soulclap to Sojourner's Place for pointing this story out to us over on Facebook. I encourage other villagers to let us know about updates on this story ... or about other taser-related deaths.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The official Coroner's inquest into Hernandez-Lopez's death is scheduled for May 3rd. From what we know so far the man had been the victim of a gang of thugs and was running to the officer for help.

The NHP said the officer feared for the man's life as he ran across lanes of heavy traffic. However, they haven't explained how killing him made him any safer.

p.s. You state in your main story about tasers that Las Vegas is no longer using them. That is not correct.

Here is their latest Taser policy

https://clarkcountycriminalcops.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/metro-agrees-with-aclu-report/