WOONSOCKET -- A 41-year-old man died after the Woonsocket police shot him twice with a TASER gun early Sunday morning.

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski

State Police Maj. Steven O'Donnell speaks at a news conference yesterday as state police Capt. Steven Lynch, left, and Woonsocket Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle listen.

The state police said yesterday that Woonsocket officers were trying to "subdue" Timothy R. Picard during a "struggle" in the police station's booking area when they hit him with two shocks from an electric stun gun.

"A short time after that, the suspect [fell] to the ground and [was] unresponsive," said state police Maj. Steven G. O'Donnell. Picard died an hour later at Landmark Medical Center.

The police station confrontation, including the TASER shots and Picard's collapse, were captured August 22, 2006 06:09 a.m. on surveillance tapes that the state police have viewed and are using in their investigation, according to O'Donnell.

The police say they are awaiting the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests, which are expected to be completed today.

Picard is the third person to die in Woonsocket police custody since 2003.

The state police say Picard's wife, Charlene Picard, called the police at 3:16 a.m. Sunday from the couple's home at 44 Hillside St. and promptly hung up.

Two officers were dispatched to the house. When they arrived at 3:22 a.m., they were confronted by an angry Timothy Picard, who appeared to have been involved in a domestic disturbance with his 19-year-old son.

O'Donnell said "a violent struggle" ensued between Picard and the two officers, inside and outside the house, during which the police used pepper spray on Picard. The chemical spray was "not effective," he said.

The Woonsocket officers called for backup and two additional officers responded. Picard, whom police describe as being "a large man" of about 250 pounds, was finally handcuffed and taken into custody at 3:28 a.m.

He was charged with one count of domestic assault and battery, one count of resisting arrest and four counts of assaulting police officers, according to the Woonsocket police log.

The police escorted a handcuffed Picard into the Woonsocket police station at 3:44 a.m., where according to the state police, he again became "very uncooperative, combative, struggling" with officers in the booking area. It was during this second struggle that Sgt. Christopher Brooks twice fired a TASER gun at Picard.

"Shortly thereafter, Picard became unresponsive and Woonsocket rescue was called to the scene," according to the state police. The police placed that call for help at 3:52 a.m.

Picard was taken by ambulance to Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, where he was pronounced dead at 4:45 a.m.

O'Donnell said the videotape, from a live-feed camera in the police station's booking area, captures the entire incident; however, it does not include any audio track.

"It's pretty clear what happened when he came into the station and into the booking area," said O'Donnell, who has seen the tape. "Video only tells a certain story without audio, but it's clear what happened . . . He was uncooperative and combative and they TASERed him."

He noted that while the video does not tell the complete story of what occurred that night, it will help the state police understand what took place in the final moments of the confrontation.

"Any time you have something on video, it's difficult to refute it positive or negative, it's there," O'Donnell said.

In Rhode Island, it is standard procedure for the state police to investigate any incident in which a person dies in the custody of local police departments.

Following Picard's death, O'Donnell said the state police are examining whether the Woonsocket Police Department's use-of-force procedures and TASER administration guidelines were followed. O'Donnell acknowledged that the state police are also looking into whether Picard had any medical condition that may have contributed to his death.

Woonsocket Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle said he believes that department protocol was followed, though he plans to conduct a separate review of Woonsocket's TASER protocol.

In the meantime, Brooks, who fired the stun gun, remains on active duty, Houle said.

However, the head of Rhode Island's ACLU today urged the state's police department's urging them to stop using TASER guns.

ACLU executive director Steven Brown blames the TASER for contributing to Picard's death.

"Unfortunately, this death was in some sense inevitable in light of the continually-growing evidence that stun guns are not the non-lethal device that proponents purport them to be," Brown wrote. "At the very least, however, in light of the evidence that is already available, this death should serve as a wake-up call that the Taser’s use is potentially lethal and should only be employed as an alternative to deadly force."

The Woonsocket police chief refused to release the arrest report from Sunday morning, saying the attorney general's office had advised him not to do so. The state police also refused to release the report, citing the investigation.

The state Medical Examiner, in a statement released early this afternoon, said: "The cause of death for Timothy Picard... who became unresponsive while in Woonsocket police custody, is pending multiple test results," according to the statement. "Final determination of cause of death is dependent on review of these tests and not expected before several weeks."

Picard is the first cousin of state Rep. Roger A. Picard, D-Woonsocket, who confirmed the family relationship but declined to speak any further.

Two others have died in the custody of the Woonsocket police since 2003.

In January, 39-year-old Troy T. Charette, of Woonsocket, died of a cocaine-induced irregular heartbeat, according to the state medical examiner's office. The police found Charette lying on Social Street, a main thoroughfare, clutching his stomach and chest screaming "my heart, my heart." He was taken to Landmark Medical Center, where he died soon afterward.

In September 2003, Janet Barr, 46, also of Woonsocket, was being held at the Woonsocket Police Station on drug charges when she reportedly choked on a concealed object she tried to swallow. The attorney general's office said she choked during a "brief but violent confrontation" with Woonsocket officers. She lapsed into a coma, was taken to Landmark Medical Center and died five days later.

The medical examiner concluded that Barr died of "cardio respiratory collapse due to acute cocaine intoxication." The attorney general's office cleared the Woonsocket Police Department of wrongdoing in Barr's death.

The state police said they do not intend to reopen those investigations in the wake of Picard's death.

In recent years, police departments throughout Rhode Island have turned to TASER weapons as a less lethal way of subduing combative people.

But here and elsewhere around the country, the stun guns have angered critics who worry about the safety of these weapons.

There have been more than 150 TASER-related deaths in the United States and Canada between June 2001 and March 2005, according to an Amnesty International report released earlier this year.

The manufacturer, TASER International Inc., has touted the weapon's safety and disputes these and other findings.

With reports from projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

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