Virginia cop under investigation for Tasing a suspect for 40 seconds | The Raw Story

Virginia cop under investigation for Tasing a suspect for 40 seconds | The Raw Story
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
A Fredericksburg, Virginia police officer is under investigation after video surfaced of him using a Taser for more than half a minute on a non-armed suspect, seemingly breaking his department’s protocol.
WRIC-TV reported that the suspect, 36-year-old Lantz Day, was released from a local hospital on Wednesday after placing a $3,500 bond and faces an obstruction of justice charge following his Nov. 9 encounter with police.
Day was picked up after the gray Buick sedan in which he was riding reportedly hit at least five parked cars. The driver fled the scene before an unidentified officer reached the vehicle. Video filmed by a witness shows Day attempting to do the same, before the officer uses his Taser and continues to employ it after Day drops to the ground. Day can be heard yelling, “Stop it” and screaming in the footage.
“I remember a high level of voltage,” Day told WRIC on Wednesday. “And I remember screaming out at one point. And after that, I just remember being in a jail, being in a tank in a jail, freezing.”
Fredericksburg Police spokesperson Natatia Bledsoe told ABC News that the department’s investigation is standard protocol following the use of force by an officer.
“We’re not investigating whether it should have been deployed,” Bledsoe explained. “The suspect was legally detained, noncompliant and attempted to flee.”
However, WRIC reported that the department’s policy on the use of force states, “A subject fleeing from an officer, by itself, is not justification for the Taser to be deployed and is prohibited.”