A young man in Siberia has died after police used a taser to wake him up, a local lawmaker and the victim’s mother said nearly two weeks after the tragedy Thursday.
Dmitry Kharchenko fell asleep in the back of a taxi on his way home from a nightclub on Feb. 15. The driver reportedly asked police officers for help after failing to wake him up.
“They tased him and he died,” Irkutsk city Duma deputy Alexander Kvasov was quoted by Interfax as saying Thursday.
The 24-year-old’s mother, Margarita Kharchenko, said in a Facebook post that her son died of heart failure.
The officers, A. Ankheyev and A. Lyubimov, were fired and placed in pre-trial detention for two months Saturday, Kharchenko wrote on Sunday. News reports identified them as Alexander Ankheyev and Arkady Lyubimov.
The Irkutsk region’s Investigative Committee said Thursday that the two officers were charged with abuse of power.
The regional police department later said the arrested officers were attempting to “revive” the passenger because he was unconscious.
“It’s premature to say that the officers’ actions could have led to the person’s death,” Interfax quoted its press service as saying.
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