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US police officer uses Taser on woman, 87
WASHINGTON, Aug 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A US police chief has defended the
use of a Taser on an 87-year-old grandmother cutting dandelions near her home
in the southern state of Georgia.
The incident occurred last Friday when a youth club worker called 911 after
spotting Martha Al-Bishara, who does not speak English, using a knife to cut
dandelions in the club’s grounds near her home.
Responding to the scene, police in Chatsworth, around 85 miles (135
kilometers) north of Atlanta, stunned her with a Taser and handcuffed her
after she failed to follow instructions to drop the knife.
“It was the lowest use of force we could have used to simply stop that
threat at the time,” Chatsworth police chief Josh Etheridge told local media.
But Al-Bishara’s granddaughter, Martha Douhne, told NBC that “she thought
she got shot.”
“We have never really told her about stun guns or Tasers, and so she
doesn’t know what that is,” she said, adding her grandmother is having
trouble sleeping and is afraid to go outside.
Etheridge insisted the octogenarian had posed a potential threat that
justified the use of the Taser.
“An 87-year-old woman with a knife still has the ability to hurt an
officer,” Etheridge said.
“We began trying to communicate with her, telling her of course to drop the
knife … We didn’t know if she just didn’t understand us or was having some
type of issue.”
The officer “used the Taser, he deployed the Taser rather than using deadly
force to stop the situation,” he said.
Etheridge added the force would continue to review the situation, and the
officer in question remains on duty.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0818 hrs