• Originally published by the Chicago Tribune on February 9, 2005 [here]

By Ofelia Casillas and David Heinzmann
Tribune staff reporters


 A 14-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest Monday and was unconscious at a Chicago hospital Tuesday after police shot him with a Taser stun gun, officials said.

 The boy, a state ward who lives at a residential group home on the North Side, became enraged Monday morning when he was asked to remove his baseball cap. He then broke four windows and battered three workers at the home run by Uhlich Children's Advantage Network, Chicago police said.

 Police said the boy lunged at a sergeant, who shot him with the Taser, a weapon that applies a powerful electrical jolt.

 Officials in the Cook County public guardian's office gave a different account. They said that when police arrived the boy was no longer violent and was sitting on a couch.

 "It sounds really crazy," Public Guardian Robert Harris said. "To harm him even more [after] they were called to help? I'm not trying to say this kid was some saint in the situation, but it just makes you wonder."

 Tasers have become increasingly controversial, especially when used on children. In Miami-Dade County, community activists became outraged last year when a police officer used a Taser to subdue a 6-year-old boy holding a shard of glass.

 On Monday, the original call for help was for paramedics to treat the boy's right hand, which had been bleeding, county officials said.

 An Albany Park District sergeant, who had the Taser, arrived with beat officers and Fire Department personnel. They all tried to subdue the boy and "encouraged him to submit to arrest and to receive medical treatment for the injuries to his hands," police spokesman David Bayless said.

 Police said they talked to the boy for 10 minutes in the facility's third-floor common area, warning him that he would be shot with the Taser. The boy then lunged at the sergeant, swinging at him, prompting the sergeant to fire the weapon, Bayless said.

 After he was shocked, the boy fell to the floor and "didn't come to," Bayless said. Paramedics immediately started to give the boy medical attention. An ambulance transported him to Children's Memorial Hospital, where he remained Tuesday, officials said.

 The hospital declined to comment, but the public guardian's office said the boy was still sedated and showing signs of improvement Tuesday.

 Deputy Police Supt. Barney Flanagan arrived afterward and conducted interviews with more than a dozen witnesses and concluded that the sergeant acted properly, Bayless said.

 County officials said it appeared that the group home's workers had done their best to treat the boy and handle the incident. The boy came into state care in 1999 and has lived at the Uhlich home since June 2003, Harris said.

 The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is aware of the incident and is "closely monitoring" the situation, said spokeswoman Diane Jackson. Uhlich CEO Tom Vanden Berk declined to comment while the incident was still under investigation.

 The boy has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery to personnel and one count of aggravated battery to a police officer, police said.