Maine’s attorney general concluded there was no criminal conduct when four law enforcement officers used a stun gun and beat a handcuffed man in the head with a flashlight while facedown on a porch in a death determined to be a homicide.
The state’s chief medical examiner determined Lau’s death was a homicide but three troopers were exonerated by an internal investigation, officials said. The deputy who wielded the flashlight remains under investigation by the sheriff's department. Officers delivered multiple blows after they said he resisted while facedown, according to documents. He remained facedown, secured to a board with a spit mask covering his face, when he was placed in an ambulance, where an emergency medical technician noticed he wasn’t breathing, the documents said.
And the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights ruled that striking someone on the head with a flashlight or baton or other hard object is prohibited “except where lethal force is authorized.” A deputy acknowledged hitting Lau multiple times with a flashlight, including once on the head because Lau used his legs to trap a trooper’s foot after being cuffed.
“It’s frustrating for the family, for the cops, and for the individual who’s in some sort of crisis. It’s a no-win situation without an additional professional who can assist the police,” he said. The attorney general concluded there was no criminal conduct by law enforcement officers last month, and made it public this week after the investigatory documents were first reported by the Bangor Daily News.
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