Flier Tasered at Calif. Airport

Edwin Barton loses it after having to go through screening twice
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 11, 2012 3:21 AM CST
Passenger Tasered at Calif. Airport
Fry me.   (Getty Images)

Here's a new one in the ongoing battles between airline passengers and security. Now a flier has been been zapped with a Taser—three times—for becoming "unruly" during a security screening in California. New Hampshire flier Edwin Barton, 26, walked into the Sacramento Airport off his Southwest plane when he suddenly remembered he had left something behind. Not so fast, he was told. He had to go through security screening again before he could retrieve his belongings—and he lost it, say cops. He became argumentative with TSA agents, grabbed his carry-on off the conveyor belt and struggled with deputies, who went electric on him, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Barton was taken to a local hospital and is now in jail and facing two misdemeanors. Cops are stumped about his behavior because he wasn't doing anything wrong until he got angry. "Nothing would have compromised the security of the airport," said a police spokesman. "There was no contraband, nothing illegal on his person or in his bag. It's a big question mark as to why he took the actions he did." (More TSA stories.)

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