(RNN) – Police in Wisconsin were cleared on Friday in the case of Adam Trammell, a 22-year-old man with a history of mental illness who was tased repeatedly in his own shower and later died.
Trammell, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was in his home showering last May when police broke open his door after a neighbor called and said he was acting erratically, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The neighbor said he was talking to himself about the devil, and she was concerned he may hurt himself.
Body cam footage released by the West Milwaukee Police Department shows officers as they force open his door and encounter him in the shower (mistakenly calling him Brandon).
The two officers, Michael Rohleder and Anthony Munoz, attempt to speak to Trammell, who appears confused and does not respond.
They order him to come out of the shower, as he fills a jug with water and uses it to splash them twice.
One warns him “you’re going to get tased” if he does not comply. He remains in the shower, not speaking.
The officer then reaches for him in the shower, and he raises his arm defensively, to block the officer, who then steps back and tases him. Trammell screams and collapses into the shower, lying on his back and shaking his head.
He remains unresponsive for a minute, then sits up and begins struggling, grabbing onto the bath tub faucet and rocking back and forth in apparent distress.
The officers tell him to relax and stop moving, before again tasing him, setting off more screams.
According to the Journal Sentinel, he was tased 18 times throughout the course of the encounter, and lost consciousness in the hallway outside his apartment about half an hour after first being tased.
The medical examiner’s report stated he had a black eye, broken rib, and a number of cuts and bruises. It did not directly attribute his death to the tasings, but listed it as a contributing factor.
Paramedics administered sedatives when they arrived, which was also cited in the medical examiner’s report, and he stopped breathing and lost his pulse by the time he was put into an ambulance. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
The Journal Sentinel reported the official cause of death was listed as “excited delirium,” a condition not recognized by the American Medical Association or American Psychological Association.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney, John Chisholm, wrote a letter to West Milwaukee Police Chief Dennis Nasci outlining his decision.
He writes that, after multiple reviews, “I conclude that there is no basis to conclusively link Mr. Trammell’s death to actions taken by the police officers.”
An attorney for Trammell’s family told the Journal Sentinel he was “tortured” and had “needlessly suffered.”
His father, Larry Trammell, told the paper he felt the law enforcement officials involved should resign.
“This is a nightmare. I can’t believe this,” he said.
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