Man shocked 50 times by a Taser dies — Oklahoma cops face murder charges, officials say

A year after a man died after being shocked with a Taser dozens of times, two Oklahoma police officers have been arrested, officials say.

Joshua Taylor, 25, and Brandom Dingman, 34, were charged with second-degree murder in the July 2019 death of 28-year-old Jared Lakey, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations.

The officers with the Wilson Police Departmentwere responding to call on July 4 involving “Lakey acting in a disorderly way,” according to the state’s bureau of investigations. The call came when Lakey was running down a street naked and screaming, KXII reported.

Lakey,who is white, did not comply with commands from Taylor and Dingman, leading the officers to deploy their Tasers, the state agency said.

The officers told medical personnel they only stunned him four times, The Frontier reported.

But court documents show Dingman deployed his Taser 23 times and Lakey deployed his 30 times, according to KXII. Lakey was stunned for almost 4 minutes, the TV station reported.

“(The victim) is Tazed numerous times while merely lying naked in the ditch, presumably for not rolling onto his stomach and complying with the officers’ commands to ‘Put your hands behind your back’,” the affidavit states, The Daily Ardmoreite reported.

The number of times Lakey was stunned “greatly exceeded what would have been necessary or warranted,” court documents show, according to the Associated Press.

The officers also said Lakey had used drugs, but a toxicology report showed he did not have any drugs in his system, according to the Frontier.

Lakey died at an Oklahoma City hospital two days later, state officials say. His cause of death was as a result of the officer’s “use of electrical weapon and restraint,” court records show, the Daily Ardmoreite reported.

Wilson, with a population of about 1,700, is 112 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for Taylor and Dingman and they were taken into custody Thursday, officials say. They are now out of jail after posting $250,000 bonds, according to the bureau of investigations.

If convicted, Taylor and Dingman face 10 years to life in prison according to the Associated Press.

“Hopefully, the fact that the criminal prosecution of those responsible for his death has begun will make this upcoming one-year anniversary of his death a little bit easier to bear, if only in the slightest,” District Attorney Chad Ladd said in the statement, according to The Daily Ardmoreite.