Two Oklahoma police officers have been charged with second-degree murder after being accused of using their stun guns more than 50 times on a 28-year-old man who died as a result. The incident happened in Wilson, a small town located about 100 miles south of Oklahoma City.
Citing court documents, CBS News reports that the officers, Joshua Taylor, 26, and Brandon Dingman, 34, from the small southern town of Wilson, were charged Wednesday in the death last year of Jared Lakey.
According to police records, the two officers used their stun guns on Lakey more than 50 times, “which greatly exceeded what would have been necessary or warranted by the attendant circumstances.” Shortly after that, Lakey stopped breathing and became unresponsive. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which assisted with the investigation at the request of the Carter County sheriff’s office, said that after Taylor and Dingman used a their stun guns on Lakey on July 4, 2019, Lakey was hospitalized and died on July 6, 2019.
Taylor and Dingman had come into contact with Lakey after responding to a call that he was acting in a disorderly way, OSBI said. The agency said that when Lakey wouldn’t comply with the officers’ commands, they used their stun guns multiple times.
The OSBI said that prosecutors issued arrest warrants for Taylor and Dingman on Wednesday and that both turned themselves in Thursday morning. They were each given a $250,000 bond and both have bonded out.
