32-year-old man who died in Raleigh police custody Tuesday was tased, police chief says

The Raleigh Police Department is investigating after a person tased with a stun gun died Tuesday morning.

“I will tell you any time there is a loss of life that is taken very seriously by this police department,” Police Chief Estella Patterson told reporters at City Hall. “We are going to ensure a full investigation is conducted into this matter.”

Darryl “Tyree” Williams, 32, of Raleigh, was the person who died Tuesday, according to his friend Ciaira Clavon, who spoke with The News & Observer on Wednesday.

“He was looking forward to his 33rd birthday in a couple months,” Clavon said. “He was silly, outspoken, best dressed in Raleigh. ... He was taking care of his family; his mom, his grandma and sister.”

ABC11, The N&O’s media partner, reported multiple police vehicles outside Supreme Sweepstakes on Rock Quarry Road early Tuesday morning. The area is in Southeast Raleigh off Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Patterson said the officers were conducting a “proactive patrol,” when they found a suspicious vehicle about 1:56 a.m.

“During the course of investigation a decision was made to make an arrest,” she said. “The subject ran from officers. During that time officers tried to get the individual in custody. They resisted, and a taser was deployed.”

After being tased and handcuffed, Williams, 32, became unresponsive and officers used “life-saving measures,” Patterson said.

Williams was taken to a hospital where they later died.

Clavon does not believe Williams was in custody at the time he was tased and said he was “sitting in his car minding his business.

“They killed him,” she said.

Christopher Strickland said he and Williams were best friends.

Strickland said he spoke to Williams at 1:20 a.m. when Williams was leaving a bar in the Brier Creek area.

Someone that Williams was with jumped out of the car Williams was driving, Strickland said, and the police thought Williams had something to do with it.

“Darryl was a good person,” Strickland said. “He had a drive to be successful.”

Kayla Bord, who witnessed some of the events, police searched two cars, including Williams’ and found nothing.

Police did not share details about Williams and so far have not released his name or stated a cause of arrest.

Six officers have been placed on administrative duty. And no officers fired their guns, according to the police chief.

The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident, which is protocol for the police department. Patterson also will send a five-day report with more details to the city manager for review.

The use of the Taser

Tasers, or stun guns, are designed to be non-lethal weapons to subdue a person. They work by firing a pair of barbed darts that temporarily paralyze a person with 50,000 volts of electricity.

According to a report by Reuters, at least 1,081 people have died in the United States since tasers became a widely-used police weapon in the 2000s.

Some recent reports of the deaths include the shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, after a patrol officer allegedly confused her gun for a taser, the Jan. 3 death of Keenan Anderson who died after being tased by officers, and the death of Tommy Sadler, a Raleigh man who was fatally tased by officers in 2013.

They reported that Axon Enterprise, Inc., the manufacturer of Taser, said most of those deaths involving the weapons are the result of “drug use, underlying physiological conditions, such as heart problems, or other police force used along with the Taser.”

In their guidelines, Raleigh police are instructed to only use tasers, or what they refer to as “energy weapons” in response to active resistance which is defined as “the use of personal weapons or other weapons.”

Raleigh police are not allowed to use stun guns:

• when a person is only passively resisting (which is defined as simple, non-threatening physical act to a command)

• on handcuffed people unless they are violent, likely to harm someone, or aggressively resisting

• when a person is running away from an officer

• as punishment

• in defense of verbal threats

• on pregnant women, elderly people, children or visibly frail people

• when a person is driving a car or operating a device like a bike, skateboard or roller blades

• when a person is in a location where a fall can cause serious injury

• for an investigative stop or detention

“A conducted energy weapon must be used according to prescribed training and procedures,” the guidelines state.