Police Taser bed-ridden 86-year-old
A group of police officers are being sued after they shot a disabled 86-yearold woman with a Taser gun - twice.
They allegedly sent 50,000 volts coursing through Lona Varner to subdue her as she lay in bed.
Some of the ten officers at the scene are also accused of standing on the hose to Ms Varner's oxygen mask 'until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation' in an attempt to calm her.
Grandson Lonnie Tinsley said he screamed 'don't Tase my granny' before she passed out from shock.
The details emerged in a lawsuit the family is bringing against police in Oklahoma for wrongful arrest, assault, battery and emotional distress.
The incident happened in December when Lonnie visited his grandmother in El Reno.
Suspecting she had taken an overdose of pills, he called for an ambulance but instead ten police officers burst into the home, he claimed.
Officer Thomas Duran said he ordered his colleagues to shoot after the old woman took a 'more aggressive posture in bed'.
She then pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to kill him, he added. Ms Varner was hit once but the metal barb carrying the charge did not stick so a second shot was fired. She was then allegedly dragged from her bed and handcuffed. She was held at a mental hospital for six days.
It is not the first time El Reno police have faced controversy over Taser use.
In 2008 an uncooperative driver was shot after a crash.
They believed he was acting aggressively but it turned out he was falling into diabetic shock.
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