The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office announced on March 23 that Jonathan Aaron McElroy, 34, died in custody at 12:01 a.m. after deputies deployed a TASER on him during a domestic violence response on James Drive in Augusta, Georgia.Â
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office regional use-of-force team is leading the external investigation and an autopsy has been scheduled.
The incident occurred after deputies responded to a domestic violence call around 8 p.m. Sunday. According to the Sheriff’s Office, deputies deployed a TASER after McElroy became noncompliant. He later became unresponsive and was transported to Wellstar Medical Center.Â
Georgia recorded 34 deaths following TASER use between 2001 and 2018.
Nationally, a Reuters investigation documented 1,005 deaths following TASER use by U.S. police from 2001 through 2018, with an updated tally of 1,081 by 2019. The report noted 49 such deaths in 2018 alone and said no federal agency maintains a nationwide registry of fatalities linked to conducted energy weapon use.
Medical examiners and coroners cited TASER use as a cause or contributing factor in 153 of 712 cases with autopsy data reviewed by Reuters, about 21% of the 779 deaths with recorded findings. Court records show wrongful death lawsuits were filed in at least 442 of more than 1,000 documented incidents.
In another recent case involving law enforcement’s use of TASERs, Mesa, Arizona police said Eric Baker, 52, died in custody on April 6 after officers used multiple TASERs and physical force during a bicycle stop that escalated into a roughly 95-second struggle. Arizona recorded the same number of deaths as Georgia—34—following TASER use between 2001 and 2018.
