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Police: Unarmed drug suspect fatally shot after Taser fails

SARASOTA - Two Sarasota police officers tried unsuccessfully to subdue an unarmed drug suspect with Taser stun guns before one of the officers fatally shot him, authorities said.

Police said Saturday that Michael Meluzzi, 44, was shot by an officer who thought he was reaching for a gun.

Meluzzi, a former prison inmate, was in the front yard of a home Friday with some children when officers conducting a drug raid pulled up and ordered him to put his hands in the air, witnesses said. The officers then threw flash-bang grenades to confuse him and the home's occupants, which caused Meluzzi to run.

Two officers fired their Taser stun guns at Meluzzi, but one misfired and the other only partly hit him.

Officer Alan Devaney, a 16-year veteran, told investigators that he fired his gun after Meluzzi reached into his waistband and made a quick motion with his right hand. The bullet went through Meluzzi's arm and hit him in the chest, killing him. No weapon was found on or near his body.

Four people at the home were arrested, three of them on outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court and the fourth for cocaine possession. Two guns and drugs were seized inside the home, police said.

Meluzzi's relatives said Devaney didn't have to shoot him.

"Everything they said doesn't make sense," said Meluzzi's sister, Nina. "I think they could have Tasered him again."

[Last modified July 11, 2005, 01:00:09]