Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Deputies Punished for Tasering Pallbearer at Fathers Funeral

Deputies really botched the arrest of Gladwyn Russ III.

The Star-News says investigators chose to grab Russ, who was wanted on charges of making threats, while he was serving as a pallbearer at his father's funeral Saturday in Wilmington, N.C.

"Family said that two men who turned out to be undercover deputies walked over to Gladwyn Taft Russ III, grabbed him by the arm, kneed him in the back of the leg and eventually used a Taser to subdue him while he was loading the casket into the hearse," the paper reported Tuesday. "At one point, one of the deputies’ handguns fell out of its holster and bounced onto the asphalt. People cried. The confusion alarmed family and friends so much that some of them went home instead of going to the cemetery where Russ’ father was buried with military honors because he served in the Navy."

Yesterday, New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey announced that five people will be disciplined for the way they handled the arrest. “I apologize to anyone that was there,” Causey tells the Star-News. "Family, friends, relatives. ... That was a bad decision.”

Russ was charged with threatening to kill his wife. He's now being held at the local jail. “I was just in awe. I didn't know what was going on because I was watching my daddy's casket pass through my hands for the last time," he tells WWAY-TV during an interview about the arrest.

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