Man dies after police use Taser

Jason Brown
The Daily Advertiser
Dec. 20, 2006

Officials with the Lafayette Police Department stand by their use of a Taser gun during a Sunday morning altercation with a nude, and allegedly combative, 29-year-old Carencro man, who would later die at a local hospital from unknown complications.

Officials are waiting on an autopsy report to determine the exact cause of Terrill Enard's death.

According to Lafayette police Sgt. Mark Francis, police believe Enard was under the influence of some type of unknown substance. Francis said Enard was strong, aggressive, combative and unresponsive.

"This was an aggressive individual, and the officers did what they had to do according to departmental policy," Francis said. "It's unfortunate, but what happened, happened. There's nothing that we can do about it."

Francis said had officers not had a Taser, described as less-lethal force, then they could have shot Enard because of the danger he presented to officers at the scene.

The series of events began at 5 a.m. at the Motel 6 on Evangeline Thruway. There, Enard allegedly jumped from the motel balcony and broke his ankle so badly that the bone punctured the skin. He then allegedly walked into the motel lobby and disrobed. Afterward, he walked to Evangeline and managed to flag down a car.

Motel 6 employees declined to comment for this story.

At 5:10 a.m., employees at Waffle House called police after Enard walked into the business and became irate and verbally abusive to one of the female employees. Then, Enard allegedly grabbed the woman by her arms, prompting a male employee to intervene. The man held Enard in a choke hold until police arrived shortly afterward.

Terry Dauphine, regional manager at Waffle House, said it is not uncommon for people to come to the restaurant in this kind of state because it is open 24 hours a day. He described Enard as being scared and talking out of his mind.

"In the meantime, he was uncontrollable," Dauphine said, adding that workers could not do anything with him.

Four officers were called to the Waffle House, and when the male employee freed Enard, he once again became combative toward officers, who unsuccessfully attempted to restrain him.

Francis said the officers then opted to use the Taser, but it appeared to have no effect on him despite officers using it more than once.

"That's the state this guy was in," he said.

Officers finally were able to subdue Enard, and he was taken to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition. He died at 9 p.m. Sunday.

It still is unclear why Enard's condition had deteriorated to critical by the time he reached the hospital.

Enard's apprehension and subsequent death is reminiscent of an October 2004 incident in which police used a Taser to subdue Dwayne Anthony Dunn, whose death was attributed to a cocaine overdose.

In August 2004, police allegedly tasered a suspect upwards of 17 times while trying to force him to cough up drugs they believed he swallowed. That incident ended in an out-of-court settlement worth more than $80,000.

"This is not the first time dealing with a situation like this, and I'm sure it will not be our last," Francis said. "I'm sure some people are going to have some ill feelings about this. But this is the business we're in, and it's not always pretty, but we have to go out and get the job done.

"We believe we did everything according to policy. We utilized the weapons that we have, that we are trained and certified to use. ... We're comfortable with the actions we took this weekend in dealing with this situation."

The Lafayette Police Department Criminal Inves-tigation Division is investigating the matter.