Student shot with Taser by UCPD officers

Incident occured around 11:30 p.m. in the Powell Library CLICC computer lab
UCPD officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the
Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him
into custody.

No university police officers were available to comment further about
the incident as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, and no Community Service Officers
who were on duty at the time could be reached.

At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in
the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a
BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building
immediately.

The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to
escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk
toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and
grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let
him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.

The student began to yell “get off me,” repeating himself several times.

It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser
for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in
pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition.

UCPD officers confirmed that the man involved in the incident was a
student, but did not give a name or any additional information about
his identity.

Video shot from a student’s camera phone captured the student yelling,
“Here’s your Patriot Act, here’s your fucking abuse of power,” while
he struggled with the officers.

As the student was screaming, UCPD officers repeatedly told him to
stand up and said “stop fighting us.” The student did not stand up as
the officers requested and they shot him with the Taser at least once
more.

“It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life,”
said David Remesnitsky, a 2006 UCLA alumnus who witnessed the
incident.

As the student and the officers were struggling, bystanders repeatedly
asked the police officers to stop, and at one point officers told the
gathered crowd to stand back and threatened to use a Taser on anyone
who got too close.

Laila Gordy, a fourth-year economics student who was present in the
library during the incident, said police officers threatened to shoot
her with a Taser when she asked an officer for his name and his badge
number.

Gordy was visibly upset by the incident and said other students were
also disturbed.

“It’s a shock that something like this can happen at UCLA,” she said.
“It was unnecessary what they did.”

Immediately after the incident, several students began to contact
local news outlets, informing them of the incident, and Remesnitsky
wrote an e-mail to Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams.

http://dailybruin.com/news/articles.asp?id=38958

The video is here if anyone wants it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3CdNgoC0cE&eurl=