Indianapolis Man Dies After Police Used Taser On Him While Responding To Mental Health Call

A 39-year-old man in Indianapolis has died in custody after police used tasers and handcuffed him while responding to a mental health call. Multiple officers who were directly involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, officials said.

The man, identified as Herman Whitfield III, died early Monday after he was struck in the chest with a stun gun twice while the police detained him at his home, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) said in a news release.

Whitfield turned unresponsive during the custody and was pronounced dead at a hospital. However, the cause and manner of his death remain unknown, the coroner's office said.

The incident happened after the deputies from the IMPD responded to a call about a disturbance at a residence on Marrison Place at around 3:20 a.m. Monday.

When the deputies arrived, they saw Whitfield with his parents inside the home. Whitfield's father said his son was "having a psychosis" and requested an ambulance. While they were waiting for an ambulance, Whitfield was moving around the home, naked, sweating and bleeding from the mouth, police said.

The officers then tried to communicate with Whitfield while preparing him to be transported. However, they lost sight of him several times as he kept moving to other areas of the house.

"After more than 10 minutes of officers negotiating and using de-escalation tactics, the man moved quickly toward an officer. The officer deployed his electronic control device, more commonly known as a taser, striking the man in the chest with at least one of the two prongs," IMPD said in the news release.

Whitfield who was 6-foot-2 and 280 pounds continued to resist and was then placed in two pairs of linked handcuffs that typically provided more comfort to larger people.

However, when the medics who were waiting outside the house came to take Whitfield to the hospital, he was found unresponsive. They administered CPR and rushed him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Meanwhile, the officials have not revealed how many officers were involved, though they have confirmed that all the responding officers had body-worn cameras, which were activated during the incident, NBC News reported.