CARMEL – A report by the Special Investigations and Prosecution
Unit of the state Attorney General’s Office determined that Carmel
Police officers were justified in deploying a Taser to subdue a man when
he would not let them to effectuate an arrest.
After being shot by the Taser in the abdomen, the suspect, Joseph Seguin,
died.
According to an autopsy, microscopy, and toxicology conducted by the Putnam
County Medical Examiner, Seguin’s cause of death was “cardiac
arrest during [an] excited state, while under the influence of [PCP],
after being Tasered and handcuffed.”
Carmel officers responded to a residence for a 911 call about a woman
being assaulted. Officers found him attacking the woman in his bedroom.
According to several civilian witnesses and police accounts, when police
arrived Seguin violently resisted arrest, kicking and punching officers,
and grabbing a dog cage with a pit bull inside it.
When officers were able to break Seguin’s hands from the cage, he
locked them under his body to prevent officers from placing him in handcuffs.
That’s when he was Tazered.
