#Oklahoma cops face murder charges for allegedly using Taser on man 50 times

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Joshua Taylor
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

Two Oklahoma police officers are facing charges of murder for allegedly using their Tasers more than 50 times on a man who refused to comply with their demands, court documents show.

Wilson police officers Joshua Taylor, 25, and Brandon Dingman, 34, surrendered to authorities Thursday on second-degree murder charges in the July 2019 death of Jared Lakey, a 28-year-old man who died at a hospital days after being hit with stun guns “multiple times” by the two cops, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced.

Lakey, of Wilson, died two days after encountering the officers on July 4, 2019, when Taylor and Dingman responded to a report of a man running down a street naked while screaming, The Daily Ardmoreite reports.

Dingman then allegedly deployed his Taser 23 times – for a total of 114 seconds – as Lakey refused to comply with the officers’ commands, according to court filings cited by the newspaper.

Taylor, meanwhile, allegedly used his stun gun on Lakey a total of 30 times over a nine-minute span, or 122 seconds. In all, Lakey was tased for nearly four consecutive minutes within a nine-minute span, according to an affidavit cited by the newspaper.

Lakey never made any aggressive move toward either officer during the incident and both Taylor and Dingman never tried to subdue him by using their hands, which runs counter to department training methods, an OSBI agent wrote in court documents.

Lakey, who stopped breathing after he was taken into custody, died from multiple heart attacks and “critical coronary atherosclerosis and law enforcement use of electrical weapon and restraint,” according to records cited by the newspaper.

Arrest warrants for Taylor and Dingman were issued Wednesday. They surrendered to the Carter County Sheriff’s Office before being released on $250,000 bond, OSBI officials said.

It’s unclear if Dingman and Taylor remain employed by the Wilson Police Department, the New York Times reports. If convicted, they face up 10 years to life in prison.

“The death of Mr. Lakey saddens us all,” an attorney for both officers, Ryan Hunnicutt, told the newspaper in an email late Thursday. “We are confident that the legal system will provide an opportunity for all the facts to be known and look forward to our day in court.”