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Report

Officer right to use Taser during Dungannon incident.

Incident Date: 1 January 2013

The Police Ombudsman has said police were right to have used Taser during a domestic incident in Dungannon.

The police involvement in the incident began when they received a telephone call in January 2013, telling them a man was threatening his mother and sister.

The PSNI referred the use of the Taser to the Police Ombudsman’s Office for independent investigation.
Its investigators obtained accounts of what had happened from the police officers concerned and the people who were in the house at the time, and examined all the relevant police documentation and equipment.
They established that when police arrived at the scene they went into one of the rooms and found a man with a knife. Two women were also in the room and in a distressed state.
The officers identified themselves to the man, told him that they were armed and asked him to drop the knife. The man refused to do so and turned towards the women.
One of the police officers then discharged his Taser and the man dropped his knife. The man was then detained and taken to hospital.
The police officer who discharged the Taser told investigators he did so to remove the threat to the women and to the police who were present.
The Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, said the use of the Taser had been lawful, proportionate and necessary.