9-1-15 Ohio:Officers first heard screams and the wail of a car horn. Then they spotted a man wedged in a vehicle’s window as he struggled with a woman behind the wheel.
That was the scene Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell described to reporters Tuesday, some 12 hours after an officer tried to subdue James Carney III, 48, with a Taser. The attempt didn’t work, Blackwell said. Carney kept punching, choking and even biting the 41-year-old woman who had stopped at a Shell gas station to use the ATM at about 10 p.m. Monday.
Officer Anthony White then deployed the Taser a second time.
Carney stopped assaulting the woman, went limp and died shortly after, police said. An investigation is under way.
The incident marks the fourth police-involved death this summer in Cincinnati, and the third for the city police department specifically. In each CPD instance, police officials said that the officers involved acted appropriately, responding to suspects who were either armed or in the midst of an attack.
“Officers should be forced to use force,” Blackwell said Tuesday. He added that the initial investigation indicates that White indeed was forced.
Carney has had a series of run-ins with law enforcement, some of which stemmed from violent crimes, according to court records. He was convicted last year of sexual battery, landing him on Ohio’s Sex Offender Registry. He also had been arrested on charges of robbery, falsification and possession of drug paraphernalia over the years.
