BART Police Ordered To Turn In Tasers

[Kadie]

EXCLUSIVE: BART Police Ordered To Turn In Tasers
Posted: 2:05 pm PDT April 15, 2010
Updated: 6:16 pm PDT April 15, 2010


OAKLAND, Calif. -- Following an incident involving a BART police sergeant inappropriately discharging his Taser, transit agency officials have ordered all its officers to hand in the controversial weapons Thursday until further training could be undertaken, KTVU has learned.

Sources told KTVU that officers received orders on Thursday afternoon from the agency’s top brass to turn in their Tasers after interim BART Police Chief Daschel Butler issued a memo with the instructions.

The rank-and-file officers of the BART police department got word of the order Thursday afternoon and could be seen stopping by the headquarters at the Lake Merritt BART station. Officers approached by KTVU said that any questions would have to be answered by commanding officers.

The final straw, apparently, came after an April 1st incident when BART police sergeant who was responding to a call about an alleged assault at the Richmond BART station.

Multiple sources said the sergeant was pursuing a 13-year-old boy who was fleeing the scene on a bicycle and reportedly deployed his Taser at the teen from his moving vehicle.

Sources said -- and the police chief confirmed -- that the shot missed and the youth was uninjured, but that the way the Taser was used was raising numerous questions.

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http://www.ktvu.com/news/23164719/detail.html?tsp=1