Taser Death: Patrick Johnson (Philadelphia, PA) [VIDEO]

The police have a real difficulty dealing with mentally-challenged people. Unidentified Philadelphia police officers were called to the home where Patrick Johnson, a mentally-challenged teenage boy, was living the other day. When the police couldn't quickly deal with the situation as professionals they pulled out their 21st century version of a cattle prod ... their taser guns ... and electrocuted the young man twice. The second jolt of 50,000 volts of electricity into the youngsters body resulted in his death.

Patrick Johnson was a special education graduate with the mental capacity of a 5-year old according to those who knew him.







The sad thing is that 18-year old Patrick Johnson called the police himself. Account to the police this was a regular thing. Police say that they have been called to the home on 14 separate occassions due to the mental health issues of this youngster.

"He had problems, but he was a good kid. It should have never happened," said Steve Zielinski, Johnson's stepfather.

Johnson had become violent with family members, and had broken items inside and outside of the home. He had taken what police described as a stick, brought it into the home and attempted to set it on fire. Police had attempted to calm the youngster down, and officers with the city's Crisis Intervention Team had responded to speak with him.

However, the police got impatient with the situations. So when they thought that the teenager was allegedly approaching them with the stick .. they opened fire with the taser guns. Johnson fell to the ground when he was tasered twice by unidentified police officers.

Zielinski said he had been in the home during the incident, and had been holding Johnson's arms behind his back at one point. He said police had told Johnson to drop the stick four times before using a Taser on him when he lunged at the officers. He said the teen ran into the home's basement, where he collapsed.


Johnson was brought to Nazareth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday, October 7.

Investigators have been working to determine how Johnson died, and what factors contributed to his death. This blogger will go out on a limb here and say that the 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through his body not once ... but twice ... may be the cause of death.

There is no indication that the teenager was on any drugs or medications at the time of his taser-related death. Please let us know if you learn anything more about this case.