Not the Taser that officers used to subdue him (Rickey Massey), then. Which is why Taser PR sent me this story. The company vigorously defends itself from lawsuits filed against it by victims or relatives of victims of Taser attacks gone wrong. But not because of a Taser. In this case, it’s a slam dunk. “FL State Attorney Glenn Hess said the cause of Rickey Massey’s death was caused by cocaine [not shown],” the News Herald reports. “Not the Panama City police officers who performed two drive stuns with a TASER ECD on October 2, 2009. Hess said, ‘The medical examiner submitted blood and urine samples secured during the autopsy for lab analysis. The University of Florida Diagnostic Reference Laboratory’s report shows that Mr. Massey’s blood contained 5888 ng/ml of cocaine. That is the second highest sample ever tested by that lab!'” I’d lose the exclamation mark, personally, but point taken (so to speak). Meanwhile, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and condolences to Mr. Massey’s family.
