Attorney describes 911 call in Taser case

Portions of police recordings indicate Brian Cardall was fatally stunned with a Taser after receiving 42 seconds of verbal warnings to "get down on the ground."

The information comes from attorney Peter Stirba, who was recently hired by the Hurricane Police Department after one of its officers used a Taser device on Cardall just before Cardall died.

In a statement released Friday, Stirba describes select information from the 911 calls placed by Cardall's wife, Anna Cardall, and a witness, as well as a police recording of the incident.

In the recording, Stirba says the officer who deployed the Taser can be heard saying that Brian Cardall "came right at me." That statement allegedly was made minutes after the officer used the Taser and while paramedics were treating him.

The Cardall family also released a statement Friday questioning the information Stirba released.

"While Mr. Stirba may have provided his interpretation of the recordings in his Friday afternoon news release, we feel he has omitted numerous highly significant facts, which we feel the public should know," the family statement reads. "Please let us mourn in peace, pay appropriate tribute to Brian and bury him on Monday. Following the funeral, we'll find an appropriate time to release the recordings for media and public scrutiny."

Family members were provided copies of the tapes from the Washington County Critical Task Force investigating Brian Cardall's death.

"We have listened to those tapes with great interest, but also with extraordinary sadness," the family statement reads. Brian Cardall is the son of KSL editorial director Duane Cardall.

Brian Cardall, 32, was traveling home with his family to Flagstaff, Ariz., Tuesday after visiting family in Salt Lake City. At some point near Hurricane, Brian Cardall, who family members say is bipolar, was having an episode, and that prompted them to pull over in order to medicate him. After his wife called 911, officers and paramedics responded. She later learned he had been hit with a Taser and was unresponsive.

Stirba said the 911 tapes indicate Anna Cardall was scared when she called for help.

"The 911 recordings indicate that Mr. Cardall was reported by his wife and another witness as being uncontrollable and displaying otherwise highly irrational behavior, such as repeatedly running in and out of traffic on a major highway and screaming unintelligibly," Stirba wrote.