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Ohio officer used stun gun on 9-year-old boy, authorities say
(CBS/AP)
The Mount Sterling officer went into the boy's home on a truancy complaint last week. The child refused to cooperate, resisting going with the officer or to school. The child's mother warned the boy, who, although just 9, reportedly weighed at least 200 pounds, to obey the officer or he'd be shocked, but her attorney said she didn't expect her son would be tasered.
A report says that after repeated warnings, the officer pulled the boy from the couch, but he "dropped to the floor and became dead weight ... flailing around," and the boy lay on his hands to prevent being handcuffed.
The report indicates that after being shocked once, the boy still didn't cooperate and was shocked a second time. The boy had no sign of injury, and an ambulance was called. The boy was taken to the sheriff's office, and a delinquency count of resisting arrest was added to his truancy charge.
The Columbus Dispatch reports police chief Mike McCoy announced Monday night that he will soon resign from his village post, but he insisted it has nothing to do with the taser incident.
McCoy was suspended last week after he did not tell Mount Sterling Mayor Charlie Neff of the incident. He claims he wasn't pressured to resign, and did so because of budgetary problems.
He said he did nothing wrong by not immediately telling Neff what had happened because, as chief, he felt he needed to check into the incident himself first.
"I did what I was supposed to do to maintain the integrity of the incident," McCoy said.
With the disbanding of the police force, Sheriff Jim Sabin said he has been called to temporarily take over patrol of the village. Sabin said the mayor changed the locks at Village Hall and the sheriff has taken the police department's weapons and computers to secure them, not because they are part of any investigation.
The police department has been under fire for some time. In fact, the village council disbanded it in August, saying the force had been mismanaged and there was not enough money to make payroll.
But council members kept McCoy on as chief. Then, private donations allowed some officers to come back part-time in September.
Village resident Heather Rice said all the facts about what happened last week aren't yet known, and the police chief has simply become a scapegoat.
"This isn't about a Taser," she said. "This is about forcing this village to lose its police force."
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