Officer shoots suspect after he’s accidentally hit with stun gun, Nevada video shows

Authorities say a Reno, Nevada, police officer shot a suspect in the shoulder unintentionally after a sheriff’s deputy accidentally shot him with a stun gun, body camera footage shows.

Reno police officers responded to a request for help with a traffic stop from a Washoe County sheriff’s deputy on July 26, Tom Robinson, Reno Police deputy chief, said in the video released by the department. Officers arrived when multiple deputies pointed stun guns at the suspect, who was not following orders from officers, police said.

The suspect tells officers, “I’m going to run, I’m sorry,” as he steps toward them, video shows. Officers asked the suspect to get on his knees multiple times in the video, but he did not comply.

“Can you go down on your knees please, let’s talk about this, let’s figure this out,” one of the officers is heard saying.

At least four officers can be seen pointing stun guns at the suspect as he puts his belongings on the ground. The sound of the stun gun being deployed is heard next, followed almost immediately by a gunshot.

The stun gun hit an officer in the knee, “causing him to unintentionally discharge his firearm once, striking the suspect in the right shoulder,” Robinson said in the video. The suspect then got on the ground, bleeding from his shoulder.

One officer is heard asking who shot the suspect, and another replied “I think it was me. I got shot with the Taser and I thought… [expletive].”

The officer created a tourniquet for the suspect’s shoulder until medical personnel arrived on scene. The suspect — cited for reckless driving and obstructing and resisting an officer — was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The officer hit by the stun gun was also treated for the wound on his knee.

The department did not identify the suspect or the officer in the video it released. An outside law enforcement agency is investigating the shooting.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 1:07 PM.