Texas Cops Kill Another Suspect with Taser Stun Gun

Within months of Fort Worth offering up $2 million settlement in the Cop-Taser death of Michael Jacobs, a Dallas police officer repeatedly used a stun gun to stop a man running away from the cops last Sunday morning — and that man, identified as Freddie Lee Lockett of Irving, has died.  

From media reports, we know that the Dallas cops were called into the South Oak Cliff area of South Dallas to investigate a possible robbery.  It was around noon when they arrived and stopped Freddie Lockett. 

Cops Use Stun Gun on Suspect After Warned That He Was High on PCP

While the first news stories don’t reference any communication between the citizen and law enforcement, investigation by the Dallas Morning News has since revealed that there was some chatter between them:  Mr. Lockett told the police he had taken “wet,” street lingo for PCP, and he was high at the time.  It’s not controverted that Freddie Lockett was a drug addict: he has a longstanding criminal record of drug convictions (something obvious to the officers if they bothered to check). 

From what we know right now, the cops thought Freddie Lockett matched the description of an individual who might have robbed someone in the area.  Freddie Lockett was not cooperative with the police, other than explaining he was high on PCP. 

Which the cops should know was enough of a communication right there — PCP is a powerful, controlling drug; the fact that Lockett attempted to run from them isn’t surprising.  Law enforcement is presumed to know that PCP is an hallucinogen, causing delusions, agitation, and paranoia.  Who knows what was in Lockett’s mind then, other than he was obviously terrified?

Tasered Several Times, Freddie Lockett Dies

Preliminary reporting is that Lockett was zapped with a stun gun several times.  It’s not clear how many cops ended up here, to corral this guy.  We know more  cops were called in.  We also know that Lockett’s physical condition was a cause for concern there at the scene; the cops called EMS. 

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Lockett may have experienced “excited delirium,” a recognized medical condition where drugs interact with adrenaline badly, and death results.   Nice – not even a reference to the possibility that electrical volts were pulsated through his body, known to have PCP within it, on several different occasions, assumedly in rapid succession. 

Are we really suspose to ignore the Taser stun gun here?  Are the police not apprised of the possible dangers involved in sending electrical current through folk that are agitated or under medication? 

 Isn’t that just the scenario that the Fort Worth cops faced with Michael Jacobs? 

The press conference on this matter has been cancelled by the Dallas Police Department.  We do know that an internal investigation has begun.  Wonder if they’ve figured out who the individual was who was the robber that they were looking for in the first place — because in all this, there’s nothing proving Mr. Lockett was anything but innocent here.