Comments about ‘Attorney describes 911 call in Taser case’

Condolences to the Cardall family.

Truly amazing--Stirba gives us his version of the facts. I can't wait to hear the recordings from the scene to see if Stirba is even close to the truth. What did he omit? What motivated Stirba to issue this statement now, this way? Why not wait until the invesitgative team that is looking into his City Police Officers come to their full conclusion? He was content waiting before. Why issue his statement or "summary" now? I'm less interested in his version than in the tape itself. What we do know is that Stirba's officers/clients were at the scene and waited only 42 seconds before Tasing the naked Cardall who was in a state of mental collapse. Forty-two seconds. Wow-great patience on the officer's part, what about that? What is their training for handling people with mental illness? Oh, right. None. Mrs. Cardall is on the phone with 911 for 12 minutes during his breakdown and within 42 seconds of being on the scene they tase him and he's dead. Okay, what else happened? How long did they tase him? How powerful was the tase? How close?

I'm less interested in Hurricane's hired gun's "version" of the recordings (no pun intended) than I am in the data from the Taser. I've been thinking of buying a Taser for myself and I know that you have to really be careful with it, for example, where did the officer shoot him, from what distance, with what electrical force, how many times, for how long? That is the technical data that I'm interested in. Hey, let's be clear about this--these officers chose to tase a completely naked guy having a mental episode. Lot a questions for the cops on this one.

So sorry for the Cardall's loss. My heart goes out to them. Great family. Tragic, sad, terrible.

This seems like the most unnecessary of deaths. These officers just needed to wait him out, talk to him, put their arm around him. He's having a psychotic attack. He's gone mental. He's completely naked. No clothes meaning no gun no weapon. Why are our police trained to shoot first? 42 seconds. Stirba didn't even say minutes. Did I read that right? 42 seconds?

Let's see: Two cops are on scene, and they wait only 42 seconds to tase a naked 150-pound guy that they know is having a mental episode? Hurricane City lawyered up immediately after this happened, and this is the best they can come up with?

Why is it we hear about so many people be tased??
Do the police now taser everyone that they arrest --I heard about a 72 year old, 4'11" woman that got tased. TWICE!!
Now I have to admit that a 4'11", 72 year old woman can be pretty tough especially facing a 6' 250 pound trained police officer.
I'd like to know what training each officer receives with the taser and the criteria given before someone can be shot...
I do not know all the facts in this case but I'm not too happy with what I am hearing.....

Did you read the story?
He was naked, running in front of cars and his own family was affraid to let him back in the car.
He refused to comply and was a danger to himself and others. The cops did the right thing.
The only tragedy is that there was something wrong with Mr. Cardall that resulted in a normally safe proceedure becoming fatal.

The cops didn't choose to kill Mr Cardall.
They responded to a cry for help from a family that couldn't handle the irrational behavior of a man with mental problems.
They had to restrain Cardall for the safety of everyone in the area and they followed correct proceedure in doing so.
It's not their fault there was something wrong with Mr cardall. It was nobody's fault, just an unfortunate set of curcumstances that didn't turn out the way it was supposed to.
Tazers have saved way more lives than they have taken.

The cops didn't have tranquilizer darts?

My heart goes out to Anna Cardall who lost her husband, to their child, and to the unborn child who will never know his/her father. Wow, what a complete tragedy. Have we so marginalized the mentally ill in our society to the edge that we treat them this way? I want to know the details more than Stirba spun for us here with his nifty Friday afternoon statement, just before the weekend/ Sunday papers will obsess on this story. He knows news cycles. The family has to bury their loved one while he's hurrying up the facts to support his case. He should wait until the County finishes its investigation. Why do lawyers try cases in the media?

I agree that the death of Cardall wasn't a desired result--- BUT it did happen... Now we have questions and in my opinion those questions must be answered even if its in the form of legislation restricting the use of Tasers.
We all know that we have a certain percentage of badge heavy cops and I'm wondering if these individuals are the problem here.
Tell me I'm wrong-- with evidence Cops---

No one is arguing the fact that he was a danger to himself and others. However, there are many less dangerous forms of restraint then a taser. They use them all the time at mental hospitals. I'm talking about restraining techniques developed specifically for this type of situation. The fact that the cops chose to use as a taser as the first option is absolutely rediculous. The guy was naked. He was not wielding any form of weapon. Two officers could have easily restrained the individual without the use of a taser. Tasering, in my opinion, showed a lack of understanding of the situation, a lack of proper training, and frankly laziness on the part of the officers in there refusal to engage the individual physically. Were these officers really that afraid of having to get physical or have they been trained to be too reliant upon potentially lethal use of force when unnecessary?

People are so quick to judge. This was a sad event but just that. Do you realy think this officer got up that morning hoping to kill someone. Give me a break. People with mental disabilities are not simple situations to deal with. This is a sad situation but could easily have been a police officer being killed by a person not in a right state of mind. May both the Cardalls and the officer find peace. Trying to find blame will only bring anger.

I'm sure that if the cops had known the tazer was going to be fatal they would have done something differently.
I'm sure that if the Cardall family had known he was going to have an episode they would have stopped earlier for medication.
I'm sure that if crime wasn't so rampant in our world we wouldn't even need tazers or, for that matter, cops.
I'm sure that all the commenters that are bad mouthing the cops have never been in a situation like this.
I'm sure that bad things happen to good people.
I'm sure that everyone wishes this had turned out differently.
I'm sure we've all had events in our lives where we wish we had handled the situation differently.
I'm sure that if we had as much opposition to drunk drivers as we are reading in these comments against tazers we'd save a lot more lives that we would if we eliminated tazers.
I'm sure that tazers (and cops) have saved way more lives than they have taken.

It's understood that the use of a taser can cause death in very unusual circumstances but the odds are very slim.
By contrast, we daily subject ourselves to the most dangerous ao all situations every time we get behind the wheel of a car. In this case the odds of injury or death are much higher than being tased.
Do you ever subject yourself or your family to something dangerous? Do you let your kids jump on a trampoline? Do you drive faster than the speed limit? Do you talk on your cell phone while driving?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you are much more irresponsible than the cop that pulled the trigger on the taser.
Quit being so critical when you are worse than him.

Wow! Imagine the restraint of those cops. They gave commands for 42 seconds to a man who is naked and holding his clothing in his hands. I don't see any imminent danger to the cop. He took one step towards them and they taser him? They had medical staff on site in addition to the cops and they can't wait him out?

Fact of the matter is, many cops don't have the patience or skills to deal with these types of situations. Many of them get their jollies over deploying tasers. See the Vernal episode of a year or two ago after a traffic stop.

I don't see cops and administrators going through enough "what if" scenarios. Tragically that failure cost Brian Cardall his life.

This is just a sad story for both sides. Obviously the Cardell family has much to mourn. Knowing the officer involved and his young family it is tragic. I know the officer as one of the easy going polite officers in the community. He and his family are just good people. Not knowing all the details involved it is difficult to make sense of the situation. No matter the outcome of the investigation I can assure you nobody wins in this situation. KNowing this man, even if found justified by the Wash Co Sheriff, this tragic event will haunt him to the end, he's just a good person who (of course with hindsight) would have chosen a different method had he thought this would kill any person. He and his wife have been wonderful people in our community and we are sad to see how events have unfolded.

It's too bad the victim's father had to make all those comments in the press. That's what prompted the release of the 911 tapes.
Let the shooting board review it, then sue them if you wish.
But don't make comments about the case, then chide the cops for releasing all this information before the funeral.

You can sure tell which people on the comment board are cops! I think the the taser has turned into a good time charlie tool for the cops, it is how they inflict punishment without any tell tale signs of excessive force like the old styl ebeating used to leave.

Oh and if you want to know how I know this, My brother who is a cop told me that it was a common practice among his fellow officers and himself. I was stunned when he told me this.