The Police Ombudsman has found that police were justified in discharging two Tasers at a man who held a knife to his own throat and threatened to kill himself.
The incident happened at Dromore, Co Down, on 20 July 2010.
The man (Man A) had previously called police to warn that he was going to kill himself, as well as his ex-wife and her new partner.
He gave no indication of his whereabouts during the call, so police checked the details of his car and his last known address. They established that he had not stayed at the address for two weeks.
At 9.19pm, just over an hour after his first call, Man A called police again. He made various threats against police, including against one officer in particular, and again made threats against his ex-wife and her new partner.
He also said he was armed with a knife and claimed to have a firearm in the boot of his car.
At 9.25pm police requested air support to scan the area around the home of Man A's former wife in Dromore.
At 10.09pm Air Support reported that they had spotted Man A on the Lurgan Road, near the town's leisure centre. A specialist police Armed Response Unit, comprising three officers, arrived at the scene one minute later and found Man A to be armed with a knife.
When the officers challenged him to drop the knife, Man A raised the weapon and pressed it against his throat, before momentarily moving the weapon three to four inches away from his neck.
At this point one of the officers (Officer 1) shouted "Taser! Taser!" and discharged the weapon at Man A from a range of approximately 10 feet. The discharge proved unsuccessful and did not fully subdue Man A.
Another Officer (Officer 2) then issued a similar warning before discharging his Taser at a range of about five feet.
The two officers then moved in on Man A and managed to disarm him. Despite the Taser discharges he continued to struggle violently and was handcuffed to the rear. He was then arrested for making treats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon, as well as assaulting and resisting police.
He was then taken to hospital by ambulance for examination, and subsequently returned to police custody, where he was again examined by a police doctor.
The Police Ombudsman's On Call Senior Investigating Officer was informed about the discharge and Police Ombudsman investigators went to the scene.
The two officers who had discharged their Tasers provided statements recalling that Man A had been highly agitated and verbally aggressive. Both stated that they had initially tried to use non-violent means to resolve the situation, and had discharged their Tasers only when absolutely necessary.
The officers said they shouted "Armed police, drop the knife!", and one of the officers recalled that he had activated the laser sight on his Taser, which placed a red dot on Man A.
The officers recalled that Man A continued to struggle for some time after being disarmed and restrained.
No civilian witnesses were identified, but Police Ombudsman investigators retrieved all relevant PSNI documentation, including command and control logs.
The electronic memory of the Tasers deployed during the incident were also examined. Both weapons were shown to have been discharged for five seconds at 10.09pm.
Having reviewed the evidence, the Police Ombudsman, Mr Al Hutchinson, concluded that the Tasers had been used appropriately and had brought a swift end to a potentially dangerous situation.
"Police used a graduated response, starting with verbally reasoning with Man A, giving him opportunities to surrender the knife and warning him that Taser would be used prior to its discharge," said Mr Hutchinson.
"Police attended the scene in order to disarm Man A and prevent him causing harm to himself and others. The evidence indicates that, in the circumstances, the use of taser was the most viable means of achieving this goal."