US man dies in Taser incident

A 20-year-old man died yesterday in Frederick City, Maryland, after being tasered by a police deputy, the Frederick News Post reports.

Daniel Lugo, Gray's friend and neighbour, said "he, Gray and some other friends, got home from a party early Sunday morning". Although he did not witness the Taser incident, he claimed "a friend told him a few people were pretending to fight and a neighbour might have called police, concerned that they were actually fighting".

Lugo explained that police "commanded everyone there to get on the ground", and that the friend said the deputy "struck Gray with a Taser and administered multiple shocks for several seconds, even though Gray had said, 'I'm on the ground'."

Gray's mother, Tanya Thomas, explained her son was "deaf in one ear and might not have heard the commands as well as others", although his family said he was in good health at the time of his death.

"More than 80 police agencies in Maryland are equipped with Tasers, according to Taser International, the weapon's manufacturer." It describes the Taser as a "less-than-lethal weapon [which is] part of a deputy's regular equipment".