A Minneapolis man shot by police with a Taser last week during an altercation at the downtown Minneapolis YMCA is on life support and is not expected to survive, a family member said Saturday.
David Cornelius Smith, 28, suffered from mental illness, said his uncle, Larry Smith, an attorney from Oak Park, Ill. He remained hospitalized Saturday at Hennepin County Medical Center. Family members believe that police mishandled Thursday’s Tasering incident, Larry Smith said.
Smith’s parents, an uncle and cousins, all from Peoria, Ill., were on their way to Minneapolis on Saturday to be with him, Larry Smith said. They have not talked to police about the details of what happened, but were told by hospital staff to arrive as quickly as possible, he said.
Smith said his nephew suffers from bipolar disorder, a condition that involves periods of excitability or mania alternating with periods of depression. “There are some serious mental health issues for him” that may have led to the behavior that prompted the police call to the YMCA, he said.
Larry Smith said the family is angry that a Taser was used to subdue a mentally ill person.
“I’m sure the police are trained to handle individuals with mental health issues,” he said. “There are a lot of people with mental health issues in this country, and they don’t get Tased by the police.”
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