Las Cruces Police delivered 38 less-lethal attempts to a stabbing suspect before finally taking the man into custody recently. Officer body cam footage captured the entire scene, as the suspect shook off Taser shots and bean bags repeatedly.
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In all, police tased the suspect 23 times and fired 15 bean bag rounds before finally disarming and apprehending him. Footage shows the man just wouldn’t give up.
Stabbing Suspect Won’t Go Down
“Nine of the officers had their Tasers out, eight of them actually used their Tasers. There were 12 Taser shots and 23 pulls of the trigger, which cycles the Tasers to run the electricity. The Tasers were used so frequently and so often that some of the batteries drained on the Tasers,” said Las Cruces Police Chief Patrick Gallagher, as reported by lcsun-news.com.
The incident began when police responded to a call for a man in a mall parking lot armed with a knife. Police now allege the suspect, Joshua James LeNoir, assaulted three mall employees, including two with a knife. He then attempted to carjack a couple in the parking lot, according to lcsun-news.com.
That’s when police responded, but it proved difficult to take LeNoir down. Police say the suspect wore several articles of stolen clothing, which might have dampened the less-lethal attempts. You can hear the crackle of Tasers and the thud of bean bag rounds in the footage, but it wasn’t until a final shot to the head that LeNoir finally gave up.
“As a result of that final deployment of the beanbag, Mr. LeNoir did sustain serious injuries to his face and his arm. Unofficial understanding is that he lost his eyesight as a result,” Gallagher said.
“LeNoir wasn’t particularly responsive to officers’ commands. The police chief said officers commanded him to drop his knife, move away from the knife, or throw the knife 124 times, to no avail,” reported lcsun-news.com.
“Several times the officers actually said, ‘we don’t want to hurt you,'” Gallgher said to lcsun-news.com.
