Deputies Taser Frisky 92-Year-Old Man

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB2X2SYOLE.html?imw=Y

HUDSON - A Pasco County Sheriff's Office deputy used a Taser on a 92-year-old man after he attacked his assisted living facility roommate with his aluminum cane and then swung at the officer.

The sheriff's office was called at 12:14 a.m. Thursday to the Assisted Living Center of Pasco County, 14108 Old Dixie Highway by a nurse at the facility.

The nurse was checking on patients when she heard a ``thud'' and ran down the hallway to find Roland Casanova, 81, on the floor trying to defend himself from the blows of Olin Holcombe, 92. She tried to stop Holcombe from beating Casanova, but he swung the cane at her, a sheriff's office report states. snip

``Wow, that was smarts,''Holcombe said after the deputy shot him with the Taser.

[linazelle]

1. I know it's not funny but..."wow, that smarts"???

:rofl:

[quinnox]

2. lol

Whoa, 92 and still fightin'

[wuushew]

3. This is stupid

any healthy adult should be able to subdue a ninety-two year old assisted living patient.

All this does is raise the possibility of a cop induced taser heartattack.

[Warpy]

7. I take it you haven't worked in a nursing home

Some of those old folks can be frighteningly strong and when they snap, it's serious. Most of the time, skilled staff can avert a crisis by figuring what's wrong and dealing with it. Some of them are just plain unpredictable, though, and that's what this sounds like.

[wuushew]

9. What is so hard about parrying the cane blows?

or blocking them with a mattress or other defensive object? As a healthy adult you should be able to last longer at any game of defense than the elderly individual.

All the time gained could be used to resolve the situation verbally or wait until additional orderlees arrived.

[Warpy]

11. I can tell you haven't worked in a nursing home

Those mattresses aren't like the ones you have at home. It takes a lot more to muscle them around. Plus, we aren't able to use any sort of weapon to "parry" a blow. Plus, there was another patient in danger.

That cane could easily have broken arm bones.

Please think about what you're saying and listen to people who have actually been there. Also think of which was worse, tasering the old guy or having 6 burly cops wrestle him down.

[wuushew]

14. So you feel this was the correct course of action?

n/t

[Warpy]

15. I wasn't there, so I can't tell you that. However, I think

there's a chance it might have been.

The violent old geezer didn't seem to have been particularly harmed by it, and he may well have been harmed by burly cops getting him into physical restraints. 92 year old skin is prone to tears and 92 year old bones are prone to fracture.

It's certainly not something I want to see done in most cases of patient violence. This guy had a weapon, though, and he was attacking anyone who got near him. Depending on his level of mobility, it may have been impossible to remove everyone from the vicinity and let him tire himself out beating up the furniture.

I can neither condone nor condemn them for what they did in this case since I don't know all the facts. However, I've been in enough similar situations to know that it might have been the right course of action.

[400Years]

16. How 'bout we go and Taser you grandpa for kicks?

Huh, you like that eh?

[Warpy]

17. You'd have to dig them up, hon

Try reading the whole post sometime.

[400Years]

21. doesn't matter, the point stands

[SmokingJacket]

18. You're right.

You have to protect the other patients.

My grandfather -- RIP -- used to try and trip other old people with his cane when he was in the nursing home. Old bastard would have deserved being tasered, frankly.

[Divernan]

4. Violent old people should be medicated, not tasered.

There are a lot of reasons why elderly people in nursing homes may behave violently, including paranoid delusions, pure survival instincts (trying to get away from pain), whatever. I've visited nursing homes where people just sit and silently cry all day, or shout at the top of their lungs. Clearly they are very unhappy and often no longer able or willing to communicate. If I were in that state, I would prefer to die, but as along as no one would put me out of my misery, I would hope they'd at least medicate me to blur the mental anguish.

[FlaGranny]

20. They DID once medicate nursing home patients

to make it easier to care for them. There was a large outcry about that. Nursing homes had to change their ways and only medicate patients if absolutely necessary. Perhaps this old guy had never shown violent tendencies before. We would be screaming if they were medicating people unnecessarily.

Perhaps this could have been handled better, who knows.

[AX10]

5. Tasers can harm:

A taser causes a person to lose control of their muscles, so you cannot control how you fall, therefore, the risk of injury is strong.

There are better ways to handle people in this type of case.

With that said, Taser Int, being out west....maybe the airforce will have a friendly fire "accident" on the Taser plant.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Casanova is the fellow the old guy was whopping with the cane n/t

[Dead_Parrot]

8. How many donuts does a deputy have to eat...

...before he loses in unarmed combat to a 92-year old, and has to resort to a taser?

:shrug:

[NNN0LHI]

10. Not taking sides here at all but my father in-law is 40 years older than me

He is not much taller or heavier than I am but he is strong as a bull. I am serious. He is 91 and still works 8 hours or more a day 6 days a week. Hard work too. The kind of work I can no longer do. To be honest he does the kind of work now I could never do. I would never want this man mad at me. He could whip me like a red headed stepson.

Don

[Gregorian]

12. Man, I hope I'm frisky enough to tazer when I'm 92.

That guy's got more life in him than I do at 50.

Disclaimer- It's not funny. I'm really pissed off about tazers. As well as people who have to live in old folks homes. And I dearly hope I'm that frisky at 92.

[AX10]

13. Thank you for the support.

:hi:

I am pissed off about Tasers too.

[Beelzebud]

19. What a lazy asshole cop. What happend to restraining people

by physcial force?

Was the cop to filled up on donuts and ho-hos to restrain a 92 year old man?