Age not a factor in Taser use, chief says

— Ozark Police Chief Jim Noggle said age is not a factor in determining when his officers use a Taser on someone.

Noggle said Tuesday that officer Dustin Bradshaw used his Taser last week on a 10-year-old girl who was kicking and combative with Bradshaw after her mother called police.

According to a report filed by Bradshaw on Nov. 12, the officer was called to an Ozark home for a domestic problem. The girl was on the floor of the house screaming and crying. She refused to follow her mother’s instructions and the mother told Bradshaw to use his Taser.

Bradshaw carried the girl to the living room and told her she was going to jail, according to the report.

“While she was violently kicking and verbally combative, [the girl] struck me with her legs and feet in the groin,” Bradshaw wrote in the report.

“The subject was actively resisting arrest at this time,” Bradshaw wrote. “I was having a difficult time placing the cuffs on her and administered a very, very brief drive stun to her back with my Taser. She immediately resisted and was placed in handcuffs.”

The girl would not walk on her own so Bradshaw carried her to his police car.

She was taken to the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.

The girl’s father has been in contact with police, Noggle said, and he is upset the officer used a Taser.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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