Man dies after police use Taser
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Taser death: Police say efforts to resuscitate the man failed. (AAP: Dave Hunt, file photo)
A man has died after being tasered by police near Ayr, south of Townsville, in north Queensland.
Police say officers were attempting to arrest the man at Brandon early this morning, after they were called to a domestic incident.
The Queensland Police Union (QPU) says a taser was used because the man had a number of weapons and had injured himself.
Queensland Police Minister Neil Roberts says the investigation into the man's death will examine whether a stun gun was used appropriately.
Mr Roberts says the Ethical Standards Command is investigating and the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) and the Coroner have been notified.
"We need to allow the full investigation of all of those agencies to take place and they will be focusing, I'm sure, very critically on the appropriate use of the taser," he said.
Police say their initial information suggests emergency calls were made to police and ambulance about 2.40am AEST.
Police arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later.
In a statement, police said a naked man was acting aggressively and destroying property at a residence at Brandon.
"The 39-year-old man had allegedly assaulted another occupant of the residence and had damaged property and sustained cuts to his arm," the statement said.
"It is believed that a Taser was deployed and that police managed to physically subdue the man.
"However, before the ambulance could arrive at the scene the man stopped breathing."
Police say efforts to resuscitate the man failed and the incident is being treated as a death in custody.
A report will also be prepared for the coroner.
