Ex-trooper who fired stun gun at a 15-year-old boy who was riding an ATV causing him to crash into a pickup is charged with murder
Daily Mail
December 20, 2017
A former Michigan State Police trooper has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a Detroit teenager who crashed an all-terrain vehicle after being shot with a stun gun.
Mark Bessner had no 'legal justification' to fire his Taser from a moving patrol car while trying to stop Damon Grimes from driving an ATV on a city street, said Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy.
'He created a very high risk of death,' Worthy said, explaining the second-degree murder charge. 'He may not have meant to kill him.'
Bessner is alleged to have reached out the window of his patrol car and shocked the teen with a taser in order to get him off the road.
Demond Grimes, 15, was driving an ATV at 35 to 40 mph when he crashed on August 26.
Troopers turned on their lights and sirens but the Grimes refused to stop.
The troopers pursued the ATV when the teen tried to drive off the road and onto a sidewalk. He crashed into the back of a pickup truck.
Grimes was just weeks away from starting the ninth grade at Michigan Collegiate High School in Warren.
An autopsy revealed remnants of a stun gun were in the boy's hair. He died from multiples injuries.
A message seeking comment was left with Bessner's attorney.
In August, lawyer Richard Convertino said Bessner made a split-second decision to use a Taser when Damon refused to stop. He quit the state police after the incident.
Besides murder, Bessner also is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Since the teen's death, state police no longer conduct high-speed chases in Detroit unless they're investigating a major crime.
State police spokesman Lt. Mike Shaw said, 'We fully support' the charges.
'I want to apologize on behalf of my department, the Michigan State Police, to the Grimes family,' Shaw said. 'We don't teach this type of thing in our department. Bessner acted totally on his own.'
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said a Taser typically would be used only when an officer believes a suspect is resisting - and not from a moving car.
He acknowledged that he's had to ease concerns in the community after Damon's death, although the case involved the state police.
'These things cause a lot of public angst. ... I am the face of policing in the city of Detroit,' Craig told reporters.
The teen's family has filed a $50 million lawsuit which described the incident as 'a drive-by shooting of a child on an ATV.'
'Under no circumstance should any police officer ever shoot like a cowboy out of his vehicle, out the window,' attorney Geoffrey Fieger said as he filed the lawsuit earlier this year.
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