(PHOTO: iStock/NORRIE3699)
An unusual incident occurred in south-west London in January 2021, when a 10-year-old girl who had threatened her mother with scissors and a hammer was shot with a Taser by police officer Jonathan Broadhead.
The mother alerted police after her daughter threatened her with gardening tools. The reason for the girl’s aggression was the confiscation of her cell phone by her mother, who was concerned about her daughter’s well-being. According to the mother, the use of cannabis-based products may have influenced her daughter’s behavior.
When the police arrived, the girl tried to run up the stairs holding the garden shears. PC Broadhead asked her several times to put down the scissors. When she didn’t comply, he used the Taser. “The Taser was the best option I had,” Broadhead said later at his hearing.
After the Taser was deployed, the girl passed out and screamed in pain. She was taken to the hospital, where the three Taser prongs that pierced her skin were removed. Fortunately, the girl did not suffer serious injuries.
The girl’s mother expressed shock at the police’s actions. She hoped the situation could be calmed verbally. The incident was investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which concluded that Broadhead did not breach police standards of professional conduct.
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“I am worried”
In his defence, Broadhead said: “I was concerned about her intentions with the hedge trimmer. Why did she grab the hedge trimmers as soon as she saw us. I was worried about what she would do with it.
Commenting on the incident, Commander Jon Savell said: “This is an extremely rare and unusual case. In the days immediately following the incident, a senior official visited the address to apologize for the trauma caused to the girl and her family. While no wrongdoing was found, we reiterate that apology today.”
He added that the Taser gives officers the ability to de-escalate situations and protect others from harm. “From January to October 2023, the Taser was ‘deployed’ more than 5,300 times, but was only fired on 359 occasions, a discharge rate of less than 7 percent,” Savell explained.
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