Comments about ‘Family files wrongful death suit in Brian Cardall's death’

to "Wrong" especially,

You seem to think that the people on the road (some going very fast) were at no risk... because they were in their cards and he was naked.

I beg to differ.

My parents witnessed several people almost killed by a person trying to commit suicide by running into traffic on Highway 6 a few years ago.

The daughter was diving a mentally ill mother to the hospital in Spanish Fork (doctors in Price couldn't handle her). The mother was going to jump out of the moving vehicle so the daughter pulled over, but before she could restrain her, she jumped out of the car and ran directly into traffic.

She was hit simultaniously by a truck pulling a travel-trailer and a truck pulling a large boat. The truck pulling the trailer tried to avoid hitting her and jackknifed hit head-on at a combined 150 mph. The mentally disturbed mother was killed instantly. Didn't even blead. But both drivers were seriously injured, emotionally, mentally AND physically.


Maybe the officers were TRYING to prevent a similar incident???

I think we owe them the benefit of the doubt.

The first thing officers should have done was stop traffic from both directions.

Then they could have acted to diffuse the situation without risking injury to innocent bystanders and without resorting to lethal force.

Hurricane should be held fully accountable for killing an innocent man.

This has been a difficult situation for both the Cardall family, the officers and the officer's family. A law suite is no suprise. There may be many reasons for litigation - certainly money is among them.

The one to blame for the suit is Hurricane County's attorney, Peter Stirba. Even before Cardall's funeral, he was issuing press releases defending the officers and condemning Cardall. I can't think of a better way to stir up bad feelings and a lawsuit, especially in a case as emotional as this one.

Anna Cardall should be thanking the Hurricane police officer.

I work in a hospital. There's a strict protocol for using force against an aggressive, mentally ill patient. Tazers are only allowed if violence is emininent. A nurse complaining that a patient is unruly, loudy, or breaking things isn't adequate reason to taze. A security guard was fired for tazing a patient. The patient had threatened to hit a staff member, but was otherwise not being violent. But, he didn't comply with commands. The guard violated his training and the rights of the patient. Obviously we don't need security guards like that in a hospital. I doubt Hurricane needs cops that violate their training. Or, they were poorly trained, which means the city is liable.

I'm sickened and disgusted by the lack of feeling reflected--and outright stated--by some of the posters. I wouldn't doubt for a second that they are police officers or somehow related to one.

From the very beginning the evidence indicated mismanagement and callousness on the part of the responding police officers, and that has proven to be so. We now have more (and accurate) information that not only confirms initial suspicions and concerns, but paints a much darker picture.

This isn't about money, it's about justice for the Cardall family and changing the system.

No doubt if this had happened to member of YOUR family you would be singing a different song. What a bunch of arrogant hypocrites.

Good luck, Cardall family.

My son suffers from mental illness and was tazed during an incident in his apartment. One could easily blame police as my son was warning them through a bathroom door before he came out that he was not armed and could feel himself "loosing it". When he came out of the bathroom and saw the drawn guns he flipped out. It took two tazes to subdue him. Afterward I asked him to be frank with me about his assessment of the situation and how the police handled it. He said he was scared of himself and that the police did the right thing. He knew he was no threat (at 5'6" and one of him and 4 of them) but that probably all police know of a policeman who thought they could handle something and end up dead. The police are not mind readers, they do not know who is armed, who is dangerous, who is high, or what. But they do know that their greatest chance of death is during a domestic situation. As a mom who could easily be in the Cardall's spot, I do not fault the police.

More than one person has been killed in Utah by improper use of Tasers by police. If a man is naked, its clear he's not armed. Being forewarned that he was bipolar and not yet responding to medication should have been enough to tell the officers to put on the brakes. Stopping traffic on the road would have been a good idea. What's the justification for treating the widow the way they did? None, except intimidation. They owe the Cardalls plenty.

We can armchair quarterback the tazing, but what about the way Anna Cardall was treated? She is hugely pregnant, her husband is out of control, and she is scared. They rush her uncoscious husband to the hospital, then take HER to jail and interrogate her? This is crazy!

I think the police did what they were supposed to do. If a naked man is running out in the middle of the street trying to direct traffic he is a hazard to himself and others. If anyone of us was out there what would have we done? Stop a man from freaking out and running into oncoming traffic and save innocent lives besides the naked man's, or allow him to direct traffic while waiting for the president to pick him up?
It is Tragic that he died and I feel for the family. Perhaps tasers weren't the way to subdue him, but running at him to physically tackle him and stop him would have made him run off before the police could catch him. If he ran off into the street by himself why wouldn't two police officers make him do the same thing? He wasn't himself and so he would have been very unpredictable.
I'm sorry for the loss of the Cardall family and I hope things will turn out well for both sides.

A bunch of people who were not there passing judgement on those who were. Glad we are all know it alls.

After reading some very good posts on both sides of the topic is struck me just what a chance the Cardall family is taking. They will undoubtedly subject their late son to tremendous public scrutiny. If they loose, and they may, its all for naught. In a way, both Hurricane PD and The Cardall's are on trial. Sometimes its better to just let things go.

This lawsuit needs to happen so that the use of tasers is more closely monitored and controlled. No other family should have to go through what the Cardall family has gone through. She was calling 911 for help and instead ended up detained with a husband dead. I hope the Hurricane Police Dept. will get further training on Taser use (don't aim at the chest) and take a course in de-escalation techniques with the mentally ill.

Regardless of how it turn out no one will win this law suit. It will be a miserable experience that yields no changes, no closure, nothing but perhaps some cash. Everyone loses, except a few attorneys who are just doing their jobs.

Cops must make instantaneous decisions to protect the public from dangerous situations, including mentally ill people doing unpredictable stuff with the potential to harm others.

They followed their training and policies, and showed restraint in using less than lethal force, although that turned out to be fatal in this case.

Next time you are in trouble, call a lawyer instead, and let them deal with crazy people or other criminals if you don't like the way cops do it.

The victim brought this upon himself, and it is not something that the cops should be sued for, let alone found guilty of ANYTHING.

If the victim was not from a well connected family, this never would have resulted in a suit, but it appears that someone hopes to score some big bucks from the taxpayers over this. Perhaps the family, or perhaps the lawyers involved. Shame on all of them.

Thank you, cops, for protecting us.

"Anna Cardall should be thanking the Hurricane police officer."

It's obvious that she was more qualified to handle the situation and she would be better off had she taken the help of those who had stepped and later testified that they didn't feel that Brian Cardall was a threat either to them or the police officers since they were more mature and intelligent.

Anna Cardall spent more time talking to her husband and trying to calm him down then the police did but she was repeatedly interrupted and distracted by the dispatcher who asked inane questions she had already answered and who gave her inappropriate instructions such as telling her to take her baby out of a locked car.

To arrest her and prevent her from being with her husband was a violation of her constitutional and legal rights since she broke no law and they didn't have cause to make an arrest and the reason they did was to get their story straight.

So at minimum the family will win on the portion that deals with her unconstitutional and unlawful arrest nor did they have reason to believe he was armed and dangerous.

The problem is that people don't understand the constitutional and legal issues involved so they feel the police acted appropriately.

The officers had reason to believe that the use of a taser can in some cases lead to death and therefore use of tasers pose significant risks to the life of the person who they are used against. Because use of tasers pose significant risk of bodily injury and/or death they are considered "deadly force" since there is a potentiality of death and reasonableness of the use of deadly force must be based on judgement of a reasonable person on the scene and we have both Anna Cardall and other witnesses stating that they didn't feel that Brian Cardall posed a threat to themselves or to the officers.

Taser International makes it clear their product may result in serious injury and death. Because of this the officers should have considered it lethal force that does not always result in death and they didn't have legal or constitutional authority to use deadly force when Brian Cardall didn't pose a serious risk of bodily injury or death to others and had only committed a misdemeanor.

Mental illness. Global Warming. El Nino. Hurricane Police Dept. Bad things happen. It sure is nice to be able to blame bad things on something or someone. Even better when you can get some money out of it.

I'm sorry but tasers are lazy. I worked for a number of years with the mentally handicapped. When they had "episodes" we were taught to physically in a way that reduced the possibility of injury to all involved. Police these days would rather tase a person than become physically involved. To me that is just plain laziness. Not to mention it screams of police looking out for their own well being over others they are sworn to protect. In this case the officer should have been looking out for the well being of Brian Cardall. Instead he made sure to protect his own well being over Brian Cardall's. I agree with the lawsuit that pepper spray and physical restraint would have been much better courses of action.