20-year-old Danielle Maudsley may never wake up again. Danielle was left brain dead after she was tasered by police and smacked her head on the ground.
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Maudsley was taken to a Florida Highway Patrol Station after being arrested for a suspected hit-and-run in September. While she was handcuffed, she ran out of the door, spun, fell backwards and hit her head on the ground.
Bleeding and crying, she tried to get up. She then blacked out and has remained unconscious ever since.
But as footage from a police cruiser dashboard camera reveals, Trooper Daniel Cole, who this week was cleared of any wrongdoing, fired a taser’s electric probes into her back.
Doctors say Danielle, who was found to have cocaine and oxycodone in her system at the time, will most likely never wake up. Her mother, Cheryl has been critical of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and Florida Department of Law Enforcement telling the Tampa Bay Times she was suing FHP, and added:
“Tell me that’s not excessive force. I’m not saying she was an angel, but she didn’t deserve that.
He couldn’t reach out and grab her? He was an arm’s length away. My daughter is dead because of this. She won’t come back.”
Danielle, who had a suspended driving license, was arrested earlier that day for allegedly leaving the scene of two traffic accidents.
In the video you can see Trooper Daniel Cole at the station as she tried to escape. Cole, worried she would be hit by a car as she ran towards the direction of U.S. 19, gave chase.
He said that because of the immediacy of the situation, and the fact he feared one or both of them would be injured if he tackled her, he went for his taser.
When asked if he would have done anything differently, he said: “No, I would not have.” Experts have now questioned the use of the taser.
Cole has been cleared, but Danielle’s mother does bring up an important point: did the officer use excessive force?
