Man subdued by police with Taser after street stand-off

11:00am Monday 4th August 2008

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ARMED police fired a 50,000-volt Taser bolt and arrested two men after an alleged knifepoint confrontation in a residential street.

The dramatic stand-off began at 8pm last night in Martin’s Court, off Leeman Road, in York.

Eyewitness Ian Sewell, of Bootham, was in the street visiting friends at the time.

He described how one man appeared to threaten a group of three others with a kitchen knife.

He said: “We just kind of heard shouting and a fight outside. We looked out of the window and we saw one guy who was holding an eight-inch carving knife in his hand. He was waving it around threatening another guy and two others.”

The man with the knife, who lives locally, eventually threw the knife on to the floor. But, as the group approached him, he picked it up again.

But Mr Sewell said the fight calmed down and everyone wandered out of sight. But armed police officers then arrived along with around a dozen other officers.

Mr Sewell said: “The guy who had the knife came out and everything was relatively calm for a few seconds, but then this group came back. The shouting started again, the police officers were trying to calm the situation. They were not having it. I don’t think the group understood not to mess with armed police officers.”

He said one of the group, a 24-year-old man, started pushing and shoving the officers to try to get to the man who had been holding the knife.

Mr Sewell said: “The officer controlled him and pushed him to the car. But upon calming him down and letting him up, he continued to try to get away from the officer. The officer warned him about the Taser and told him to control himself, but then the guy wriggled free and started being aggressive again, at which point the officer Tasered him. He fell down like a dead weight.”

The 24-year-old remained still on the ground for some time before officers sat him up. He then recovered enough to be led away in handcuffs.

Tim Reed, York control room supervisor for North Yorkshire Police, confirmed that one man had been subdued with a Taser device and another man was reported to have been waving a knife around. Mr Reed said both men were arrested at about 8.30pm and were being questioned last night at Fulford Road Police Station.

Armed police now routinely carry Tasers as well as conventional firearms.

The device works by firing a small dart attacked to a wire into the skin of an aggressor. An electrical charge is immediately sent down the wire which disables the target. They are described as a non-lethal alternative to firearms, although there have been concerns raised by Amnesty International that they can cause death in certain individuals.