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Cops Made Mistake in Taser Death: NYPD Commish

Kelly underscores success rate of emergency-response units
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 30, 2008 2:13 PM CDT
Cops Made Mistake in Taser Death: NYPD Commish
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly answers questions during a news conference in New York, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007.    (AP Photo/John Marshall Mantel)

Last week's Tasering of an emotionally disturbed man that led to his death was a "mistake" by New York police officers, commissioner Raymond Kelly admitted yesterday. Two cops involved in the incident have been put on desk duty, and the entire 440-member Emergency Service squad will undergo a retraining session on tactics for dealing with the mentally ill, the Daily News reports.

"Last year we handled 87,000 calls to address emotionally disturbed people and obviously the vast majority of them went well," Kelly said in the EMU's defense. "But we are human beings. Sometimes we make mistakes."
(More Taser stories.)

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