Whether or not the homicide of David Werblow is deemed "justified" will be up to the state's attorney.
Connecticut's medical examiner said the death of a Branford man who was shocked by a police a stun gun was a homicide. The case is now being investigated by state police.
The medical examiner's office said its finding isn't a ruling on intent. Whether or not the homicide of David Werblow is deemed "justified" will be up to the state's attorney.
The examiner's report says the 41-year-old man was experiencing a schizophrenic episode when he was "tased" and restrained in March. An ambulance was called -- and Werblow was later pronounced dead at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
David McGuire of the ACLU said it's the sixteenth death in Connecticut after a police tasing since 2005. He said the last three deaths following the use of a stun gun were ruled by the medical examiner's office to be homicides.
"What matters here is that medical examiners are recognizing that Tasers can be part of the cause of death," McGuire said. "And now the next step, which is equally important, is to make sure that investigations done by the prosecutors into these deaths are meaningful."
Waterbury State's Attorney will determine if the use of force by Branford police was justified. McGuire said that's an important detail -- and it's a change in policy ordered by Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane.
In the past all of these investigations have been handled by an in-district prosecutor, meaning someone that works on a regular basis with the police that they're investigating," McGuire said.
So far, all state investigations into deaths after a tasing have found the use of police force to be justified. McGuire said there are outstanding lawsuits tied to several of those cases.
"The bigger issue really is the public's trust and confidence in police. Tasers are important tools, but what we're seeing is they're often being used on people, for example, that are in extreme mental health crisis and I think that is a fair characterization of what happened in Branford," McGuire said.
This year a new Connecticut law went into effect requiring departments file a report with the state every time an officer deploys a Taser in the line of duty.
