N.C. man died after being tased 26 times

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Stanly County, N.C., Sheriff’s deputies tased a man more than two dozen times before he died — and after he made a distress call to 911, according to a lawsuit recently filed by the victim’s family.

But a lawyer for the deputies says that 39-year-old Marlon Bryan Lewis fought officers and repeatedly grabbed for their holstered guns that night in December 2016, even after they fired their Tasers.

“I believe (the deputies) showed commendable restraint,” said Scott MacLatchie, the attorney for the sheriff’s deputies. “When someone tries to remove your gun from your holster, you are authorized to use deadly force. And they did not elect to do that here.”

The pathologist who conducted Lewis’ autopsy said she did not believe the electrical shocks killed him. Instead, the pathologist wrote, it was her opinion that Lewis died from cocaine toxicity.

But the lawsuit — filed this month against the Stanly County Sheriff, two of his deputies and the company that manufactures the Taser device — asserts that Lewis died “as a direct and proximate result” of being tased 26 times in less than five minutes.

The lawsuit contends that the deputies violated sheriff’s office policy by tasing Lewis that many times. It also maintains that Timothy Hill, a sheriff ’s deputy who allegedly tased Lewis 23 times, was not supposed to be using a Taser because his certification had expired a year earlier.

Hill, now retired from the sheriff ’s office, could not be reached for comment. Stanly County Sheriff George Burris and Andrew Furr, the other deputy named in the suit, referred an Observer reporter to the county’s attorney.

A spokesman for Axon Enterprise, Inc., the Arizona-based company that manufactures Taser devices, said the firm doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“But we do know the Taser is the most effective intermediate use of force with the least risk of injury or death,” said Stephen Tuttle, the spokesman.

Lewis, a father of two boys, worked for a tree service in Monroe, according to his obituary. He graduated from Salisbury High School and later attended Johnson C. Smith University. His encounter with law enforcement began shortly after 3 a.m. on Dec. 15, 1016, after he called 911 to report that he was in distress, according to the lawsuit. It happened in Badin, a small Stanly County town about 55 miles east of Charlotte.

When law enforcement officers arrived, Lewis began acting erratically, stating “someone is going to kill me,” according to a medical examiner’s report. Then Lewis got into a fight with law enforcement officers, who tased him, the report states. According to the lawsuit, Lewis was unarmed.