A man accused of burglarizing a home has died at Memorial Hermann Hospital hours after police used a Taser to subdue him hours earlier in northeast Houston.
The burglary suspect was pronounced dead at approximately 2:30 a.m. Monday at the northwest branch of Memorial Hermann.
The suspect had tried to run from the location of a burglary on the 2700 block of Galaxy, according to Houston police.
Four other suspects were found in the home when officers arrived. An officer chased the runaway suspect and ended up in a struggle with him in a wooded area near the 9700 block of North Wayside Drive a short time later.
A back-up officer responded to his call for help and told his partner to step away before he fired his Taser once at the suspect.
The suspect was still combative, so the officer said he reloaded his Taser and fired it again, finally subduing the man.
The suspect went into convulsions for approximately fifteen minutes after the second Taser attempt by officers.
Police say the suspect was then taken to the hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.
The officer who fought with the suspect was taken by ambulance to the hospital suffering from heat exhaustion. After he was treated for a few hours, the officer was able to go home, according to Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon.
The four people who stayed in the house were taken to the police station for questioning.
The Harris County Medical Examiner will determine what caused the death of the suspect.
Cannon said that before this incident, HPD officers had deployed their Tasers 1,600 times since December 2004. He added that the Medical Examiner has yet to rule that a Taser has been the cause of any injury or death.
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