Linwood Lambert: Virginia man dies after 20 tasings by police “Video”

Linwood Lambert, a Black South Boston, Va. man, encountered three police officers on May 4, 2013 in the early morning hours. In a chilling new report, it has been revealed that Lambert was handcuffed and tasered 20 times in a half-hour span before he died in police custody.

The video begins with officers picking Linwood Lambert up at a motel early one morning after several 911 calls about noise.

Police say because of the way Lambert was acting they decided to take him to the hospital for a mental health evaluation.

Inside the patrol car, police say he kicked out the window.

Then the video shows Lambert running straight into the hospital doors while handcuffed.

He falls to the ground and, the officers repeatedly ask him to roll over onto his stomach while threatening to tase him.

Lambert then admits he was on drugs, but instead of taking him inside the emergency room, the officers took him to the police station.

He was later pronounced dead at the hospital, after going into cardiac arrest according to the medical examiners’ report.

The report ruled the cause of death as “acute cocaine intoxication.”

But the family blames the police and they filed a $25 million wrongful death suit.

The South Boston Police Department said in a statement quote “we are vigorously defending the case. Our position is affirmed by the reports of two independent well-qualified experts in the field.”

A hearing about the case will be held Thursday in Roanoke.

Attorneys representing the Lambert family released this statement:

“Linwood Lambert, Jr.’s death was tragic and never should have happened. The police officers first encountered an unarmed and non-threatening man. They placed him in handcuffs and transported him to the hospital for medical attention. At the hospital, they repeatedly administered millions of volts of electrical shocks with a taser on an unarmed and restrained man. Despite the obvious deterioration of his medical condition from the tasing, the officers allowed Mr. Lambert to languish in the hospital parking lot, feet from the emergency department entrance. We believe the police officers violated Mr. Lambert’s constitutionally protected rights by depriving him of the medical attention he desperately needed.”

Agencies/Canadajournal