The police chief of a small Georgia town is defending an officer who deployed a stun gun on a "smiling" 87-year-old woman, saying she refused to comply with numerous commands to put down a kitchen knife she was using to cut dandelions...
"We were able to contain her to the back area. She was in an elevated position above both myself and the other officer that was there on scene. She did have a knife in her right hand," Etheridge said.
He said he and the other officer repeatedly told the woman to put down the knife, and that he even pulled out his pocket knife and threw it on the ground to demonstrate.
"I felt like everything was handled by the protocol," the chief said. "Of course, we'll still be reviewing this ... to see if there is anything we could have done differently, anything we could have done better."...
The grandmother was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor criminal trespass and obstruction of an officer and held at the police station for about three hours, Douhne said. Police refused to allow his mother and sister to interpret for al-Bishara while she was being booked and having her mugshot taken.
