A stand off between two armed officers and a wanted suspect resulted in the tazering of a young child, Teyrin Miller, aged 11 as Officer Moonshadow,21, made the decision to tazer the suspect affecting the child in an attempt to make an arrest.
Wanted suspect Cayden De Luca, 26, had a warrant out for his arrest as Officer Wadark apprehended the man by the taco stand out on Hathian Highway, with his gun drawn and a police dog deployed. De Luca, a physician working at Hathian General Hospital, apparently took hold of Miller who had been nearby, holding him hostage. The official police report states that: ” Officer Wardark proceeded to negotiate with the suspect and call for additional units when Officer Moonshadow arrived to assist.” The negotiating was unsuccessul and led Officer Moonshadow to make “the decision to deploy the taser at suspect since the dog was not a feasible option due to the situation. Officer Moonshadows taser struck the juvenile causing both him and the suspect to become subdued. During the tasing, the juvenile became impaled by the suspects’ knife and began bleeding profusely. EMS was called to the scene and transported to the juvenile to HGH while suspect was booked.”
Eyewitness Kody Barbi-Harper, 23, described her surprise at the drawing of the taser gun on the child by Officer Moonshadow, ““I just couldn’t believe that this poor frightened boy who had begged for his life was fired upon and forced to do the chicken dance, on his captive’s blade none the less. The HPD should be ashamed of themselves and the female officer involved should be strung up and shot!”. Not only was Miller stunned by the taser, but he was stabbed through the kidney with the blade De Luca had been holding to his back, once both collapsed, the taser charge caused De Luca to lose bodily control over his bladder and he urinated on Miller.
The use of the tazer on the child was a questionable tactic, especially since there may have been other alternatives to dealing with the suspect and attempting arrest. However, when the Hathian Observer contacted Officer Moonshadow to explain why she chose to use her taser eleven year old Miller, she explained: “..it was a very bad situation because I knew that man and what he is capable of, there have been some very serious allegations about him from more than one source. .I was worried sick for the kid…if that man had taken him there was a very high chance he may have tortured the kid…or worse…I just simply could not let that happen..so I took a split-second decision…knowing that the man had skin contact with Teyrin I figured that if I tazed them both the kid would only end up getting shocked but I would probably be saving his life.”
However Miller who The Hathian Observer spoke to shortly after his release from the hospital revealed that, “I begged Officer Moonshadow to let us go, I knew that Cayden wouldn’t do anything if he got away safe, but I guess my life is only the life of a kid and in this town with the HPD it sure don’t matter.” In an interview with Miller, he revealed that he and De Luca are “..casual acquaintances like. We give each other shit when we see each other but no hate ya know. I talk bout how homo he is and he talks bout my mama then I ask bout his tricks and it just goes on right.” Miller also stated, “I aint nobody’s judge. Only the good Lord can do that but cops trying to kill kids when they begging for their life. That woman needs to get right with Jesus. Maybe we should have a prayer circle for her.”
When questioned about the alternative methods that the Officers could have taken, Moonshadow was adamant that she would not have been able to pursue other choices, such as allowing De Luca to leave with Miller before pursuing discretely with one officer on foot and another using the squad car they arrived in. Setting the dog after De Luca was also not ‘feasible’ since the officers believed De Luca would harm Miller. Wadark had a chance to aim his gun at De Luca but Officer Moonshadow had felt that “Jay had his gun out…there was a possibility he could have tried to get a shot in on Cayden, but my concern was for the kid…Yes his family could sue me for tazing him but I would rather that and he was alive and well than live with knowing I let a known torturer take him.”
Was the officer too quick, too eager in jumping into the situation? Was she wrong to use the tazer and have possibly the chance for other alternatives to work? Miller may feel that the officer was more keen on getting an arrest then in actually protecting him and the use of her tazer on a child when there may have been other ways of dealing with this situation- an Officer with a real gun and a dog,the option of allowing De Luca to go some distance with Miller before pursuing- would suggest that she acted brashly and without any real thought to how Miller, a young boy, might be traumatized by the consequences of her actions.
This incident might call for better training of officers in handling situations like this with less consequences, even though they may have the right intentions it can leave things unclear and misinterpreted when situations such as these are badly handled and leave things open for people to speculate. Miller has already stated on reord as having had several negative interactions with police and this incident will probably not do anything to give him a more positive view of the HPD.
