Cops Who Tased Man More Than 50 Times Guilty of Murder

Update: Two former Oklahoma police officers were convicted of second-degree murder Friday for excessive use of a Taser on an unarmed man who died two days later in 2019. The crime is punishable by 10 years to life behind bars. They were also convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the New York Times reports, and will be sentenced Dec. 2. Our original story from July 3, 2020, follows:

Two Oklahoma police officers are charged with second-degree murder after allegedly using a Taser on a man more than 50 times. Jared Lakey, 28, died on July 6, 2019, two days after he confronted officers Joshua Taylor and Brandon Dingman in Wilson, per the Frontier. Taylor had responded to a call about a naked man running down the street and screaming shortly before midnight on July 4. Radio logs show he fired his Taser within minutes. Dingman arrived soon after and did the same, according to a civil lawsuit filed by Lakey's family members. They accuse Taylor of lying in his report, which claimed Lakey was on drugs and only held at "Taser point." The family say a toxicology report showed no drugs in Lakey's system. And investigators say unreleased body camera footage shows Lakey was tased "numerous times while merely lying naked in the ditch," per the Daily Ardmoreite.

Taylor suggested the Taser was ineffective on Lakey, whom he described as noncompliant and aggressive. But the family says actions Taylor described, including Lakey pushing on his squad car, would've only happened after Lakey was tased. The family claims a third officer choked Lakey from behind. Charging documents make no mention of this, though Lakey's cause of death was given, in part, as "law enforcement use of electrical weapon and restraint." When medics arrived, the officers said Lakey had been stunned only four times, per the suit. Carter County District Attorney Craig Ladd said Wednesday that it was actually more than 50 times. The officers "greatly exceeded what would have been necessary or warranted" given the circumstances, he said. Taylor, 25, and Dingman, 34, surrendered to the Carter County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, per KOKH. They've since posted bail. (More murder stories.)