NEW YORK — Emergency Services officers yesterday underwent training meant to reinforce the proper use of Tasers when dealing with the mentally ill and to avoid a repeat of an encounter in which a naked man in Brooklyn fell to this death after an officer jolted him with 5,000 volts of electricity.
That man, Iman Morales, 35, will be mourned at a wake in Greenwich Village today.
Last Thursday afternoon, Morales, naked and talking about wanting to die, held Emergency Services officers at bay for 20 minutes on the fire escape of his building, swinging a fluorescent lightbulb at some of them.
With witnesses convinced the encounter would end without incident, an officer shot Morales with a Taser, his body stiffening and falling headfirst 10 feet to the ground from a storefront security box.
The medical examiner has yet to determine the cause of Morales' death, though police suspect it was the head trauma he suffered when he smacked onto the pavement.
The NYPD has all but admitted the Taser should have not been used until air bags that were called for and backup officers had arrived at the scene. Citing an apparent violation of its regulations guiding the use of Tasers, Lt. Michael Pigot, of Sayville, was placed on modified duty and stripped of his gun and shield, and the officer whom he ordered to use the Taser, Nicholas Marchesona, was placed on desk duty.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also assigned Deputy Chief James Molly to head the vaunted Emergency Services Unit. Kelly said yesterday that Morales' death was not a reflection on Molly's predecessor, Deputy Insp. Robert Lukach, and that he simply wanted someone with a higher rank in charge of the unit. Kelly also, despite the required training, suggested the order to Taser Morales was a mistake in judgment, not a product of poor training.
"We think the training they receive is sound," Kelly said. "We're human beings. Sometimes we make mistakes. Reporters make mistakes. People on Wall Street make mistakes."
The training of more than 400 officers in Emergency Services will "re-emphasize the training that they receive in this most difficult, complex area."
