Taser typo: Columbia to add omitted words to stun gun policy

Columbia City Council is being asked Tuesday to make official the practice of police avoiding use of stun guns on fleeing suspects unless they have a weapon or pose a danger to officers or other persons.

That standard was inadvertently dropped in a package of guidelines that council members adopted several months ago on use of the equipment, police Capt. George Drafts said.

City officials initially revised controls on use in response to a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last winter,

The court ruling was issued after Fayetteville, N.C., police repeatedly shocked an unarmed mentally ill man who refused to go with them. The mentally ill man subsequently died in the struggle.

John Monk