“Police said the infant could have been injured if the officers had grappled with Lewis.”
Instead, an off-duty cop decided it would be a better idea to taser the man and let the baby fall onto the ground.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this because we don’t know the whole story. A part of me thinks this man did nothing wrong and was simply rescuing his child when the hospital would not let him and his wife leave with the baby. But that’s beside the point. What was an off-duty cop doing carrying a taser gun and why did he decide to taser this man? How is this legal? Shouldn’t they have guarded or locked the exits if it were really such a big problem?
I’ll let you read the article and decide. Just keep this kind of stuff in mind when you start noticing the encroaching martial law atmosphere upon us.
April 17, 2007, 12:00AM
Taser used on dad leaving hospital with baby
Endangerment charges are filed after incident at hospital where baby was born
By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA,, KEVIN MORAN and MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
A Houston man has been charged with endangerment after an incident at The Woman’s Hospital in which an off-duty Houston police officer used a Taser on the man as he tried to leave the hospital with his infant daughter.
William Lewis dropped to the hallway floor after being shocked in the incident early Thursday , and his 2-day-old daughter fell from his arms about 2 feet before landing on the floor, police said.
Lewis and his wife on Monday said the use of the Taser was inappropriate. The police department said it was necessary because they considered the baby to be in danger, and cited reports of previous threats made by the man.
“If the father had just complied with the rules, there would have been no Tasing,” said Capt. Dwayne Ready, a Houston police spokesman.
‘I thought she was dying’
Lewis, 30, said he and his wife were preparing to leave the hospital when staff told him he would not be able to leave with the baby. After a failed attempt to leave through the elevators with the baby, who wore an alert sensor that warns hospital officals about potential kidnappings, staff called security, Lewis said.
The man’s wife, who did not want her name used, said she came out of her room into the hallway as police arrived and saw off-duty HPD Officer D.M. Boling shocking her husband. Boling was working security at the time.
“He was holding the baby when (the officer) Tasered him. My baby hit the concrete floor,” said Lewis’ wife. “When I went down to pick her up to take her to the neo unit, her scream was so loud and so bad I thought she was dying right there.”
Ready said police received a report about 1:30 a.m. Thursday that someone was trying to leave with a baby without following the required procedures. “It was unclear to the officers if this person truly was the father,” Ready said.
Ready said the officer used the Taser because Lewis, when confronted by the officers at the elevator, made “threatening remarks about this being a hostage situation if he were not allowed to leave.”
He also said the child’s mother called authorities on April 2 — a week before the infant’s birth — to complain about Lewis. She “stated that her unborn child’s father called her and made threats on her and the child’s life,” Ready said.
Police said the infant could have been injured if the officers had grappled with Lewis.
Boling joined the department in September 1984 and was working an off-duty security job at the hospital when the incident occurred. Records show that since HPD officers began carrying Tasers in December 2004, Boling has shocked at least two other people.
Free on bond
The mother said hospital pediatricians examined the baby and said she was fine, “but my baby — she had the shakes real bad. She’s not as calm as she was before.”
Lewis was first charged with kidnapping, although it was later changed to endangerment, police said. Lewis appeared in State District Judge Debbie Stricklin’s court Monday. His arraignment was rescheduled for April 30 and Lewis is free on a $5,000 bond.