Probe as man dies after being shot with Taser

A FATAL incident in which a man died after being shot with a Taser by officers called to a flat burglary has been referred to the police watchdog.

A block of flats in Newcastle-under-Lyme where Staffordshire Police said they sent officers to reports of a burglary. Picture: PA

Police said the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had been notified, as a matter of course, after the incident at a block of flats in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, just after 1am yesterday.

The flat’s occupants, understood to be a young family, were not inside when officers arrived, according to a Staffordshire Police spokesman.

However, another man was in the first floor flat. A force spokesman said: “During the incident, a Taser was discharged by officers and the man was taken to a police vehicle.”

The man then became “unresponsive” and, despite treatment by paramedics, he died.

A resident living on the ground floor with his pregnant girlfriend said he saw a “drunk-looking” man being supported and escorted by at least three police officers into a custody van.

The man, who declined to be named, said that at about 1:45am he heard the white male call “help me”, as he was walking along a short path leading from the front of the flats to the mainroad nearby.

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He added that the first he heard of any trouble was “shouting in the corridor”, but he initially thought nothing of it.

“I just thought, it’s the lads having a few beers, but then there was banging,” he said.

The man added that he then heard the police arrive and shortly afterwards saw a man being escorted from the flats. “I looked out and there was about seven cop cars, and this guy came out – he was still alive then, he was still walking,” he said. “There were about nine of them and they were carrying him, one under each arm and another in front to hold him up.

“He was saying ‘help me’. He looked drunk.”

Another neighbour, Mark Finney, lives directly above the first floor flat where the incident happened. He said he heard “tremendous banging, like in distress. Then I heard somebody shouting ‘calm down, just calm down’.”

Mr Finney thought the shouting lasted “about 30-45 minutes”, but said he never heard police arrive.

“I sat and made myself a coffee – I thought it was a domestic and with those it’s best not to get involved,” he said.

“But I never heard anyone say ‘police’ or anything. When I got up this morning and heard the guy had been tasered and had died, that’s just shocking. It’s upsetting.”

Mr Finney, who has lived in the three-storey block for seven years, added that access to the flats, run by social housing group Aspire Housing, was through a set of door buzzers, and while a tradesmen button allows access during daylight hours, it prevents anyone getting inside the block after night falls.

One neighbour, who lives on the adjoining street, said: “It all seems quite strange. The flats are three-storey council houses, and from what I have heard the victims [of the burglary] made it out before calling the police.

“I gather the burglar was still inside when the police showed up.”

Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said it was “immensely sad” a man had lost his life, but added that it would be inappropriate to comment further during an ongoing IPCC investigation.

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