Crime and Court Roundup: Taser usage reportedly on the decline

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Police officers are less likely to shoot their Taser stun guns to subdue unruly suspects – at least in Appleton. Police in that city have used the Tasers for about a decade. And the Post-Crescent said Appleton Police have been reduced their usage each year, from a high of 39 incidents in 2005 to just eight last year. Police Lieutenant Todd Peters says new devices always tend to get used more – but with better training and more public awareness, Taser usage has gone down significantly. A scientific study on Tasers last year connected them to heart attacks and deaths. But the company which makes the devices took issue with the study, saying its sample was way too small. Amnesty International said over 500 people have died from Taser stuns since 2001. Appleton Police review each use of the device – and every time, they’ve found that it has met their guidelines for the use-of-force. Wisconsin has not had a high-profile Taser incident since 2006. That was in Mukwonago, when 29-year-old Nickolos Cyrus died after being repeatedly Tasered while caught trespassing at a home-building site.

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Authorities in eastern Wisconsin continue to investigate a small-town bank heist from last Friday. A lone robber claimed to have a gun when he got away with an undetermined amount of money from the Calumet County Bank in Sherwood. The man was last seen heading east on Highway 114, and sheriff’s deputies considered him armed and dangerous. They also said they were looking for a person-of-interest in the case, 45-year-old Jeffrey Lowrey – a 5-8, 180-pound white man with brown hair, a goatee, and tattoos on both arms. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the Calumet County Crime-Stoppers program.

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A Green Bay woman is in jail, awaiting charges in the stabbing death of her boyfriend. Police said the couple was arguing in their apartment early yesterday morning when the 46-year-old woman grabbed several knives, and stabbed the 35-year-old man at least once in the chest. Officers said the man was unconscious when they arrived, and the woman was giving him first aid. He died later at a Green Bay hospital. The girlfriend was arrested, and police are seeking a charge of first-degree intentional homicide. Officers said the couple had on-going domestic issues, but they would not elaborate. They had lived at their east side Green Bay apartment for about a year.

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