Police use Taser on 10-year-old at school career day, lawsuit alleges

                             

A Taser used by many police departments (Getty)

A lawsuit claims an Albuquerque, N.M., police officer stunned a 10-year-old boy with a Taser after he refused to wash the officer's car.

Officer Christopher Webb was visiting the boy's elementary school for a career day on May 4 when the incident occurred, according to Courthouse News.

During the presentation, Webb apparently asked a group of students if they wanted to wash his patrol car, the lawsuit states. When the boy, identified as R.D. jokingly refused, Webb pointed the stun gun at him and said, "Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police."

Then R.D., who weighs about 100 pounds, was hit in the chest with two barbs and 50,000 volts of electricity, according to Courthouse News Service.

Webb told the Albuquerque Journal the Taser was accidentally discharged.

The boy blacked out.

The officer removed the barbs, which left marks that "looked like cigarette burns" on R.D.'s chest, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit claims Webb acted in a "reckless manner."

R.D., who now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, has "woken up in the middle of the night holding his chest, afraid he is never going to wake up again," Courthouse News Service quoted his lawyer as saying.

Webb was suspended for three days without pay, the Albuquerque Journal reports. He did not return calls from the newspaper seeking a comment.

Commentary: This police officer clearly behaved unprofessionally during career day at this young student's school. This officer had no genuine reason for needing to remove his taser from its holster.

Hopefully R.D. will be able to recover from this incident and lead a productive life. The police officer in question should removed from duty and possibly fired from his position for his careless actions.