VIDEO Tallahassee police under fire for tasering unarmed 62-year-old woman in the back

(Warning: The video does contain some NSFW language.)

 

The Tallahassee Police Department, best-known previously for its use of excessive force during a DUI arrest and for bungling its investigation of Jameis Winston, accused rapist, may have found a way to top itself.

The cell phone video above captures the police responding to an unrelated call, and growing increasingly agitated as passers-by gather and onlookers stare.

Then, at around the 2:35 mark, one officer begins to shove an older woman, who takes the hint and starts walking away, her back turned. As one does when walking away from something.

Which is also when the officer who’d shoved her decided that he needed to pull out his taser and shoot her in the back.

The woman, 62-year-old Viola Young, fell face-first to the pavement, and was placed under arrest.

According to the arresting officer, Young had been obstructing justice and interfering with an ongoing arrest at the time, and he tasered her because she walked away from him after he had told her she, too, was under arrest.

But the Chief of Police, Michael DeLeo, said in a middle-of-the-night press conference that Terry Mahan, the officer with the quick Taser-finger, had been placed on paid leave. And that the Department was launching an investigation:

 

We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident. We want to be transparent with the community by sharing what we can at this point. The investigation will determine if the officer’s actions were legal and if those actions were consistent with the expectations I have set for our officers in terms of how we respect and treat our citizens.

 

What do you think? Was the officer’s use of force justified?