Police use Taser on grieving father mourning son's death - CBS46 News

A father, torn apart by grief over the death of his two-year-old son, was subdued with a Taser by police.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that the boy suffered sharp- and blunt-force trauma to the head and neck, consistent with a dog attack.

It happened at the scene of gruesome pit bull attack in south Fulton County.

Police said they followed the right procedures.

They said the father was desperately trying to get into his home to see his son.

Police said they asked him stay back, but he refused, so they used a Taser on him.

The father was beside himself with grief after learning the family pit bull mauled his little boy inside his own home on Sierra Trail.

Sgt. Scott McBride, a spokesman with the Fulton County Police Department, said the father was distraught yet very aggressive.

"He wanted to get inside to see his child," McBride said. "His two-year-old son was just killed, and we understand that."

Officers repeatedly told the father to stay back, but McBride said the man refused to listen.

"He told our officers, ‘You'll have to shoot me. I'm going to see my son,'" McBride said.

Police used a Taser on him.

"This is one of those parts of the job we don't like doing. But we have to protect the crime scene until we know what has happened. We must look at all the possibilities. We can't contaminate the crime scene," McBride said.

"When you go hands-on, you never know what's going to happen. It's easy to poke an eye out or knock out a tooth accidentally," McBride said, justifying his officers' actions. "At the time, it seemed like the best way for our officers to handle it."

Neighbors said they are not sure what police should have done, but they said they sympathized with the little boy's father.

"When it's your own child, you go through something like that, you're going to be angry, upset, and you're going to want to see your child for the last time," said Kendra Clopton, a neighbor.

"He was already hurting from the loss, then to have to go through that, the images haunt me," said Lakisha Moss, another neighbor.

Police said the father was physically unharmed.

CBS Atlanta News repeatedly called Fulton County Animal Control to ask if the dog would be destroyed, but the agency did not return the calls.

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