Man dies after hit from stun gun

By Gadi Dechter
Baltimore Sun
Mar. 20, 2007

A mentally ill Middle River man died Friday night after police, responding to a domestic violence call, fired on him with a Taser stun gun, officials said yesterday.

Ryan Lee Meyers, 40, of the 4000 block of Keeners Road, was shot with the weapon after he refused police orders to drop a baseball bat, authorities said.

Meyers briefly continued fighting after being stunned but then went into cardiac arrest, according to Baltimore County police. He was pronounced dead at Franklin Square Hospital Center, six miles away from his home. An autopsy was scheduled to take place yesterday. No results were available last night.

It was the first local death in recent memory caused by a Taser - a device that is being deployed in greater numbers by police around the region as a safer alternative to traditional guns.

Meyers' father and brother, who witnessed the incident, said police used excessive force in firing the Taser. They also said police refused to release an unconscious Meyers from handcuffs.

"They killed my brother," said William Meyers Jr. yesterday. After being stunned once, Ryan Meyers cried out, "'I give up, I give up,'" said the victim's brother, "and then you could hear him screaming again like [police] stunned him again, and then four or five of them jumped on top of him."

Meyers, who lived with his parents, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 15, said his mother, Anna Meyers.

Though he took mood-regulating and antipsychotic medications, Meyers still experienced sometimes-violent manic episodes every two or three years, his mother said. Friday night's outburst was her son's worst, she said.

Anna Meyers said she first noticed a change in Meyers' behavior early Friday. "All day, he kept coming over to me and asked me if I loved him," she said. "I don't know what was going on in his mind. He didn't get violent until his father came from work."

About 10:30 p.m., Meyers' father and older brother - both named William - returned home from their jobs at a nearby liquor store, his mother said. Then Ryan Meyers "flipped out," she said.

Meyers tried to block his father from entering the house, his mother said. When she tried to open the door, Meyers dragged her away and pushed her across the room. That's when Meyers' brother, who came in through a different door, confronted the agitated man physically, Anna Meyers said.

Ryan Meyers then ran into the kitchen and retrieved a large meat fork, which he started waving around, his mother said. He also picked up a baseball bat and started swinging, said William Jr., his brother.

Alarmed, all three relatives went onto the front porch. Meyers locked the door behind them, they said. The mother called 911.

It was not the first time she has had to call police when her son was behaving violently, she said.

At that point, Anna Meyers said, she walked to her daughter's house nearby, leaving her 83-year-old husband and eldest son to wait for police.

Police said Ryan Meyers continued to brandish the baseball bat when they entered; William Meyers Sr. said the bat was already on the ground.

Police said two officers entered the house and confronted Meyers, eventually stunning him with the Taser; William Jr. said "four or five" officers jumped on his brother after the shock had incapacitated him.

Once he was handcuffed, Meyers was dragged facedown from the dining room to the living room, already unconscious, said William Jr.