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Local Man In Coma After He Was Tased By Police

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Aug 25, 2008 8:30 pm US/Eastern

Local Man In Coma After He Was Tased By Police

Reporting
Alison Morris
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Police say he was being combative, but his parents say he was sick and having a seizure.

Jason Schmidt, 29, is now at Allegheny General Hospital in a medically-induced coma after police officers used two tasers to subdue him.

Pittsburgh Police have charged Schmidt with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Police placed an officer outside his hospital room and his parents say they were barred from seeing him all weekend because he hadn't been arraigned.

Outraged, Schmidt's family went to the police, court and the county executive but have yet to receive a reasonable explanation for why this happened this way over the weekend.

"To tase a guy that's despondent and incoherent that was summoned for medical assistance to administer … what this ain't the things you put on your chest to bring back a heartbeat – this is craziness," Bill Schmidt, Jason's father, said.

His family says they believe Jason overdosed on cocaine at his friend Andrew Balint's house on Haller Street in Observatory Hill Friday night. Police tased him when they responded to the 911 call for help.

"The order of assistance they lended him was to taser Jason to subdue him in whatever capacity," Bill said. "His observation was Jason was in no way shape or form verbally belligerent to the authorities, nor was he physically aggressive."

But police say when they arrived at the house, Jason was trying to forcibly enter Balint's home against his will. According to the criminal complaint, Jason struggled violently with police and had to be tased four times.

Bill Schmidt believes police were wrong to tase Jason and that they kept him out of his son's hospital room when he started photographing his son's condition.

"It seems to me that after I started taking the photographs in the emergency room with this phone, which was only because I discussed with my wife that I wanted to impress on Jason once he came back to us that this is the kind of condition and this is the kind of impact that he's making on not only himself but his family," he said. "And I believe that maybe that observation led to this."

The Schmidts say they have been given permission to see his son this afternoon.

Assistant Police Chief Regina McDonald says that a Critical Incident Review Board has been established to review this case.

Phone calls to Pittsburgh Police and the Mayor's office have yet to be returned.


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