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Police shoot man, 81, with beanbags
©Associated Press
August 30, 2002
LAKELAND -- Police shot an 81-year-old nursing home resident three times with beanbags and hit him with pepper spray when he became suicidal and brandished a small glass vase.
Willie D. Foster, who was in wheelchair and has a pacemaker, was holding the vase over his head and threatening the nursing home staff and police officers Tuesday night in his room at Grace Healthcare, a police report said.
After being subdued, Foster was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center and was reported in good condition.
The firing of beanbags "was the safest option for (the officers), the patients and the man," said police spokesman Jack Gillen. "If this were my parent, I would be satisfied with the officers' actions."
But Foster's daughter, Felicia Kennedy, said police and nursing home officials acted improperly.
"He's 81 with a pacemaker and has a little bit of dementia," said Kennedy. "I don't know if they even needed to call police. I wish they had called me first."
The nursing home administrator, Joyce Plourde, declined comment Thursday.
The executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's Elders said she was "horrified" at the report and also questioned why the nursing home staff called police rather than resolve the situation themselves.
"I fault the staff for not being trained in how to deal with someone who has dementia," said Barbara Hengstebeck of Tallahassee. "How dangerous is an 81-year-old man in a wheelchair?"
Lakeland police issued the beanbags this year as an alternative to using deadly force.
Police said two officers responded to a call about an attempted suicide. They were told Foster was violent, had tried to hit a health care worker and chased one worker into a room.
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