I have read on the local news two things relevant to this:
1) Yes, the BART police has fewer Tasers than officers. But this means that they hand them off to each other at shift change; I did not get the impression that some do not normally carry them. What's relevant is that at the time in question there were so many police on duty that some of them were not carrying Tasers.
2) Also according to these articles, BART is one of the forces which requires officers to carry the Taser on the off-side.
The suggestion has been made that the officer intended to tase the suspect and shot him instead by mistake. By mistake! Even more incredibly, this explanation reads as if it's intended to be exculpatory. Yikes!
That's even leaving aside the question of the doubtful overuse of Tasers themselves.
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Date: 2009-01-07 02:07 am (UTC)1) Yes, the BART police has fewer Tasers than officers. But this means that they hand them off to each other at shift change; I did not get the impression that some do not normally carry them. What's relevant is that at the time in question there were so many police on duty that some of them were not carrying Tasers.
2) Also according to these articles, BART is one of the forces which requires officers to carry the Taser on the off-side.
The suggestion has been made that the officer intended to tase the suspect and shot him instead by mistake. By mistake! Even more incredibly, this explanation reads as if it's intended to be exculpatory. Yikes!
That's even leaving aside the question of the doubtful overuse of Tasers themselves.