By Carlos Miller
A New Mexico police chief said he was only trying to protect a 14-year-old girl when he used his Taser gun on her last week, leaving a huge gash on her head that required 18 staples and six stitches.
One of the Taser’s prongs penetrated her skull, sending 50,000 volts of electric current into her brain.
The girl, who has epilepsy, now has trouble walking up stairs and keeping her balance.
Tucumcari Police Chief Roger Hatcher said he had no choice because the girl was about to run into traffic.
But that was before the dash cam video was released which shows there was no traffic when he chased her into the street. And he didn’t even pull the trigger until they were on the other side of the street.
Now he is saying that he had to Tase her because he “didn’t know where she was going to go.”
Thanks to his valiant efforts, Kailee Martinez now might have permanent brain damage.
The incident started when Kailee and her mother were having an argument over explicit messages and photos the girl was sending to older men through her cell phone.
Police say Kailee assaulted her mother. Her mother then took Kailee to the police department in an attempt to control the girl or talk some sense into her or maybe just to scare her.
Big mistake.
Kailee took off running like the stubborn teen that she is. Chief Hatcher chased her into a local park.
She continued to walk away. He pulled out his Taser and threatened to shoot her. She started running. He shot her.
I guess that will teach her not to send explicit messages and photos to older men. Or maybe that will just teach her not to trust police.
On the bright side, the incident smoothed things over between Kailee and her mother. Now mom is more upset at the chief than at her daughter.
Hatcher is currently on paid administrative leave.
The incident makes you wonder whether or not police need more training in dealing with teens. We’ve all seen the video of the King County Sheriff’s deputy savagely attacking a 15-year-old for flipping a sneaker at him.
It makes you wonder how they treat their own kids.
Well here’s an indicator. In Florida, more than 40 children were zapped with stun guns while visiting prisons on “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.”
I guess I should be shocked, but I’m not.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
haha. you should be “SHOCKED” but you’re not.
i get it.
puns are great.
So, given the situation was the girl a threat to:
1. The officer? No, she was running away from him. No indication that she had threatened him.
2. Was she a threat to herself? There is nothing noted about her being suicidal or self destructive.
3. Was she a threat to anyone else? I am not sure what she did to assault her mother, but it doesn’t seem likely she would be a threat to someone on the street or at her school given the situation.
Of course, I only have the information given in the article, but it does make me want answers in order to justify the LEO’s decision to Tase the girl.
So, what would have been the consequences of letting her run away and cool off if the LEO was not fast enough to catch up to her?
Many of these stories seem to indicate that the Taser is being used by some as a compliance device to make people obey, rather than a device to protect citizens, suspects or the LEO’s from harm.
I remember the days when the police would engage in high speed pursuits for any suspected crime, i.e. shop lifting etc. Eventually this changed in most departments as the risk assessment was that more harm was caused by crashes than by misdemeanor suspects getting away. I think that they actually caught most of the suspects later without risking lives in the pursuits.
It seems like it is time to assess the risk of the Taser. There have been enough stats collected to do a good risk assessment. Have the LEO’s been sold a bill of goods, that the Taser is harmless, safe, and good for most any annoying circumstances or suspects? Is it just human nature that when you have a hammer every problem looks like a nail? Or in this case, when you have a Taser on your belt every defiant suspect needs some voltage to help them see the “Right way”?
Does anyone know if there is a LEO best practices somewhere regarding Taser use? It seems that one of the national groups should step up and set some standards/guidelines. It would be a good way to persuade the local PD’s to integrate them. If they were not following the standards, it will cost them dearly in court if something bad happens, like to the girl in this story.
Boi Boy
“The incident makes you wonder whether or not police need more training in dealing with teens”
Nah, just shows another reason why there needs to be actual repercussions when cops do something which would land the rest of us in jail (instead of being on *paid* leave).
A paid vacation. THAT will teach the police chief to think twice about using the Taser irresponsibly!
Perhaps the police departments should institute a policy of docking the officer a days pay for using the Taser regardless of any later findings of justification. So if the officer was willing to give up a days pay to use the Taser perhaps these types of situations would decrease.
Boi Boy
Ah, clearly a case where, but for a taser, lethal force would have been required.
It really is time to give up the fiction that tasers are aren’t regularly used as “compliance devices” – dangerous, easy to deploy torture devices used to enforce the will of the police officer wielding it that usually don’t leave large marks.
I’m sure there are plenty of cops out there that use them as intended, as an alternative to lethal force. But far too often we see cases like this.
Perhaps more vigorous PT training is in order.
Or boomerangs.
Idiot Parents: Do not call 9-11 to deal with family issues.
Why? Police make perverts look relatively harmless.
Another example of a “non-lethal” device used on the nations slaves. Must not resist the slave drivers or you get this or worse. And it is indeed foolish to expect the cops to behave like civilized human beings.
Geez! What a gash! Another kid traumatized for life by a brief encounter with the cops.
“Police make perverts look relatively harmless.”
Funny! Scary! True!
b
911=USrael
If parents like this idiot of a “mother” would learn to be parents instead of trying to use the police to raise their brats or get the police to raise them for them, this wouldn’t have happened. It sounds like the kid was not adequately disciplined at home.
I am sure the cop didn’t intend for the dart to strike her in the head. Sounds like a bad taser cartridge if the darts flew that far apart (head and hip). I’m sorry the kid was injured like this but I hope she understands that it wouldn’t have happened if not for her unruly behavior.
@Roughny
Excellent point. I’m sure we all agree this girl understood that her adolescent acting-out would lead to getting her epileptic brain electrocuted by a police chief! It’s all her fault.
It’s really that simple – misbehave, and you’ll be subject to Taser-roulette.
Tasers are ordinarily super-accurate, and they never kill, right? This was just a case of the rare malfunction.
Authoritarian idiot.
Thuggery pure and simple. Why can’t alot of LEO’s ever take any responsibility for their own idocy. What might have come out of the officer’s mouth if his kid was tasered and some SOB thug made a lame lie to cover?