Man dies after police use Taser at Universal Studios

A man who was causing a disturbance outside Universal Studios in Florida died after being shocked with a Taser stun gun by off-duty police, US authorities have said.

Adam Spencer Johnson, 33, was said to have been acting irrationally when the five officers approached, police said.

The officers used a stun gun because Johnson was "violently" resisting arrest, said Sgt Barb Jones.

Mr Johnson became unresponsive on the ground and was later pronounced dead.

The off-duty officers responded to a call from a security guard at Universal Studios early on Friday morning about a man acting irrationally outside the Cinemax theatres in the city of Orlando.

"He was kind of pacing around, grabbing his beard, grabbing his head and hair, and they were trying to get a hold of him. He was being disorderly," said Sgt Jones, of the Orlando Police Department.

One officer shocked Mr Johnson with a Taser stun gun, before placing him under arrest.

Police said they immediately tried to revive Mr Johnson when he became unresponsive. He was later declared dead at Dr Phillips Hospital.

All officers involved in the incident with Mr Johnson, who was a resident of Winter Haven, are being placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

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Commentary

This story teaches us a number of things. The first is that Tasers are not safe. This has been known for a while and demonstrated over and over again.

YET they still are marketed as NON LETHAL weapons. That's just B.S, to be honest. These weapons are deadly and have caused significant damage to a number of people.

This story also shows the lack of training involved in using Tasers. You don't need to taze someone who is not leaving the park. Back in the old days you could kick someone out by just forcefully throwing him out. Tasing should be reserved for VIOLENT offenders. This article said no word about violence, just disorder.

Tasers should be treated as the weapons they are, and should be respected as such. This disrespect of tasers leads to deaths such as those above. If we don't educate our police force about this now, then maybe your son or daughter will be the next person that dies of a tasing when they attend a protest or get too "disorderly".