Tasered: Houston Man Dies While In Police Custody

HOUSTON, TX — The final chapter of his life began on Saturday, April 15, at a CVS store in Southwest Houston. It ended in a hospital on Tuesday, when Roderick Ronall Taylor, 42, took his final breath.

Taylor, according to Houston police officials, was the subject of a call on that fateful Saturday; when officers arrived he was being treated by Houston paramedics, who released him shortly after the police arrived. What happened next led to Taylor being shocked with a Taser.

"Taylor then became incoherent, uncooperative and walked into the drugstore and stated he needed to call police," according to an account by homicide detective L. Bailey released by police officials. "An officer followed the suspect into the store, at which point Taylor jumped across the counter of the pharmacy department. As the officer approached, Taylor jumped back across the counter and attempted to flee past the officer. When the officer attempted to stop him, the suspect began to fight with the officer and at some point attempted to grab the officer's duty belt."

Taylor also fought with a second officer who arrived on the scene, after which the first officer used the Taser on Taylor, the account continued. The shock from the Taser subdued Taylor, and he was handcuffed and treated by paramedics who had been called back to handle the incident. It was then that Taylor grew unresponsive and was transported to Southwest Memorial Hermann Hospital. According to a statement release by police officials, it was several days after his admittance that the department became aware of the fact that Taylor was in critical condition on life support.

Taylor's wife, Charneeda Dabney Taylor, said she found out that her husband had been Tasered only after she spoke with police officials at the hospital.

"I was by his bedside and I was thinking it was because his kidneys and liver weren't functioning," she told the Houston Chronicle. "I never knew he got tased."

Now, Dabney Taylor is waiting on the results of the autopsy performed on Roderick Ronall Taylor, and has questioned whether the officers have told the full story. She said her husband was "not aggressive, not the person they're making him out to be."

According to the statement released by the Police department, homicide detective and Internal Affairs officials are investigating the confrontation between Taylor and the arresting officers.

— Image: Roderick Ronall Taylor, 2012 mugshot from arrest (Houston Police Department)