MIAMI - Miami-Dade police have acknowledged using a stun gun on a second youngster just weeks after subduing a 55-pound first-grader with a 50,000-volt shock.
In the second instance, an officer used his Taser to immobilize a 12-year-old girl who was skipping school.
Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the 6-year-old boy Oct. 20, saying the child was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass he was holding, but he said he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who appeared to have been drinking.
According to the incident report, Officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars about 11 a.m. Nov. 5.
Nelson said the girl was intoxicated and said he told her to get dressed so he could take her back to school.
"While walking (the girl) to the police car, (she) took off running through the parking lot," Nelson wrote in his report.
Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop. Nelson said he pulled out the Taser and fired when the girl began to run into traffic. Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with (the girl's) safety." Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.
Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend suspects, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment, especially when police had no plans to arrest someone skipping school. The first incident already had exposed the department to more criticism for its use of Tasers, which it has begun distributing in greater numbers to officers.
"The police could have handled this better," said the 6-year-old boy's mother, Kathy Rojas. "They did not have to shoot him."
Parker said that, in light of the second incident, the department will review its policy.
