Witness in fatal Taser case: Man resisted even after Taser shot
SEATTLE -- In Monday's police shooting in downtown Seattle, the officer involved was not carrying a Taser, and a man wound up dead.
On Tuesday in Spanaway, sheriff's deputies were carrying Tasers, but the end result was still the same: a man ended up dead.
That situation began when someone called 911 at approximately 8:30 a.m. and reported someone was trying to get into a Spanaway apartment.
"You'd better quit trying to climb in this window!" a woman was heard saying.
"You've got to go! He don't listen! You've got to go!" a man said.
His name was King Ramses Hoover. He broke a window with his fist.
"Yes, now he just busted the one," said a woman to the 911 operator. "He put his whole fist through the window."
Hoover eventually threw a propane tank through Jerome Shepherd's window. Shepherd barely knew the man, and says he seemed like he was on drugs.
"He got in and we, uh, tussled with him a little bit," he said.
Deputies found Hoover behind a couch in the apartment. At least three of them tried to subdue him before eventually using a Taser on him.
Investigators are trying to figure out how many times hoover was hit with the Taser.
"He still actively resisted even after the Taser application," said sheriff's spokesman Jerry Bates.
"Taser wasn't working, and they called for backup and the finally handcuffed him and hog-tied him. And then he wasn't breathing," said one witness.
Deputies called in a medic, and Hoover was rushed to the hospital. He died a short time later.
Hoover was 27. Medical examiners have not determine whether he was on drugs at the time of his death. The results of an autopsy proved inconclusive on the cause of death.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office plans on conducting additional tests.
On Tuesday in Spanaway, sheriff's deputies were carrying Tasers, but the end result was still the same: a man ended up dead.
That situation began when someone called 911 at approximately 8:30 a.m. and reported someone was trying to get into a Spanaway apartment.
"You'd better quit trying to climb in this window!" a woman was heard saying.
"You've got to go! He don't listen! You've got to go!" a man said.
His name was King Ramses Hoover. He broke a window with his fist.
"Yes, now he just busted the one," said a woman to the 911 operator. "He put his whole fist through the window."
Hoover eventually threw a propane tank through Jerome Shepherd's window. Shepherd barely knew the man, and says he seemed like he was on drugs.
"He got in and we, uh, tussled with him a little bit," he said.
Deputies found Hoover behind a couch in the apartment. At least three of them tried to subdue him before eventually using a Taser on him.
Investigators are trying to figure out how many times hoover was hit with the Taser.
"He still actively resisted even after the Taser application," said sheriff's spokesman Jerry Bates.
"Taser wasn't working, and they called for backup and the finally handcuffed him and hog-tied him. And then he wasn't breathing," said one witness.
Deputies called in a medic, and Hoover was rushed to the hospital. He died a short time later.
Hoover was 27. Medical examiners have not determine whether he was on drugs at the time of his death. The results of an autopsy proved inconclusive on the cause of death.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office plans on conducting additional tests.