Jordon Begley was shot with a Taser in Gorton, Greater Manchester.
Photograph: Rex Features
A factory worker died partly as a result of being shot with a Taser and restrained by police officers, an inquest jury has concluded.
Jordon Begley, 23, was shot with the 50,000-volt stun gun and hit with “distraction strikes” while being restrained and handcuffed by three armed officers from Greater Manchester police (GMP). He died in hospital around two hours later, at 10pm on 10 July 2013.
While the initial Taser shock did not cause Begley’s heart to stop, the jury concluded that the use of the Taser and the restraint “more than materially contributed” to a package of stressful factors leading to his fatal cardiac arrest, the inquest at Manchester civil courts of justice heard on Monday.
It is expected that the jury’s conclusions will have a wide-ranging impact on the future use of Tasers by police in Britain.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has investigated 11 cases in which a person died after being hit by a Taser. Begley’s case is believed to be the first of those in which an inquest has found the weapon contributed to the death.
The inquest jury found that police officers involved in the Begley incident were “more concerned about their own welfare” than the fate of their stricken suspect.
Begley was struck by a nine-second, high-voltage shot because the officer deploying the stun gun went into “a high state of alert”. The behavior of PC Terrence Donnelly inside the terraced house in Gorton, Manchester, was inappropriate in the circumstances, the jury found.
Begley’s family have said they are intending to sue the GMP.
As the findings were announced Begley’s mother, Dorothy, 47, punched the air. At one point she mouthed the words “thank you” to the jury.
Outside the court her lawyer, Mark McGhee, said the outcome would have consequences that went “far beyond the death of this one individual”.
“It’s a massive decision and we have to consider very carefully where we go,” he said.
Dorothy Begley wiped away tears, saying: “It’s fantastic. For two years I’ve been fighting everybody, and finally there is justice for Jordon.”
She called for the immediate introduction of body cameras for police officers. The mother-of-two also questioned why none of the officers involved had been disciplined.
“These officers should not be patrolling the streets,” she said.
Ian Hanson, the chair of the GMP Federation, said: “Whilst the jury’s findings are noted and respected, we are not bound to agree with them. This was a dynamic incident that was measured in seconds rather than minutes. The jury appears to have criticised the duration rather than fact of the use of a Taser.
“The Taser officer was approached by a man he reasonably – based on Dorothy Begley’s own 999 call – suspected to be armed with a knife and violent.
“Unlike a jury, officers do not have five weeks to take decisions, and many of the criticisms do not appear to us to reflect the reality and duration of this incident.”
At the end of the five-week inquest at the Manchester civil courts of justice, the jury ruled that Begley’s chronic alcoholism and drug abuse, combined with a dispute with neighbours and a subsequent confrontation with police, formed part of a “package of stresses” that caused him to have a fatal heart attack. He had also recently had hospital tests for intermittent chest pain and blackouts.
Significantly, the jury decided that the discharge of the Taser, and the subsequent restraint, had “more than minimally” contributed to his death.
Begley was of slight build and offering minimal resistance to the police. There was no need for one officer to deliver two punches as “distraction blows” while colleagues tried to handcuff him, the jury said.
Armed officers who rushed into Begley’s dining room left him lying face down with his hands cuffed behind his back for too long. The jury concluded: “They were more concerned with their own welfare than Jordon’s.”
Dorothy Begley initially summoned police to her home by dialing 999 on the evening of 10 July 2013. Her son, whom she acknowledged had a violent nature, had become upset in the aftermath of a row with neighbours. He was threatening to take a knife outside and she said she feared there would be “a murder”.
She did not dare let him know she was making an emergency call to police, and instead claimed to be calling a friend, the jury heard.
Up to 11 officers rushed to the scene in what police categorise as a grade one response. Initially, Begley was outside the house, but he agreed to go inside with them. The situation developed into a standoff that ended with Donnelly drawing his X26 weapon and opening fire.
Dorothy Begley, who had been sent inside to retrieve her dog, recalled the light from the stun gun “pointing at Jordon’s heart”.
A moment later she said she heard the officer say: “This is your third and final warning. Step back”.
“I could see the fear in Jordon’s face,” she told the court. “The look [he gave me] was like, ‘Mum, help me’, and that killed me.”
Begley was struck by the Taser volts then immediately restrained by officers when he tried to resist. PC Christopher Mills delivered two distraction blows as he and his colleagues tried to handcuff Begley.
As the young man was turned over on to his back, it became clear he was in distress. Officers removed the handcuffs and tried to revive him using a trauma kit, CPR and a defibrillator. He died in Manchester Royal Infirmary two hours later.
A month before Begley died, he had complained to staff at the MRI of blackouts and intermittent chest pain. An ECG had detected no abnormality, but doctors asked him to return for a second, more detailed test. He failed to keep the appointment.
The jury was told that Donnelly had been alerted to the possibility of Begley having a knife as he arrived at the scene. He said that during the standoff, he noticed Begley’s hands were in his pockets. This made him suspicious about the possible whereabouts of a weapon and he told Begley to “show his hands and stop moving”.
According to Donnelly, Begley kept approaching. He drew his Taser and told him to stand still. He then deployed the weapon, shouting “Taser, Taser, Taser!”
Dorothy Begley said in evidence that she had no reason to think the Taser was going to be deployed because her son “was doing exactly what they wanted him to do”.
Lawyers for Donnelly and four of his colleagues had sought a permanent anonymity order to prevent them being identified at the inquest. This was rejected by the Manchester coroner, Nigel Meadows, after an application by media outlets including the Guardian, the Press Association, Associated Newspapers and ITV.
The outcome is likely to reopen criticism of the increasing use of Tasers as a “less lethal” option than guns for police. Since their introduction in 2003, Home Office figures show their use has increased by more than 200%, with one in 10 officers now armed with a Taser and more than 10,000 Taser incidents in England and Wales in 2013.
An IPCC investigation of the Begley incident effectively cleared all the officers involved. The IPCC has yet to publish the report of its inquiry.
Dorothy Begley said of the IPCC: “They are incompetent and badly let us down.”
Police Taser shooting contributed to man"s death, jury finds
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