WASHINGTON – The woman who died in a Fairfax County jail in February after being hit with a stun gun reportedly had her hands cuffed behind her back and was in leg shackles and a mask when she was shocked.
The Washington Post, citing incident reports, says that Natasha McKenna, 37, received four 50,000-volt shocks from a Taser after she tried to fight her way out of handcuffs and wouldn’t bend her knees to get into a wheeled restraint chair.
McKenna, who had schizophrenia, was being transferred to Alexandria, where she would face a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer, on the morning of Feb. 3.
She initially complied with the deputies, agreeing to be handcuffed, the Post reports. But she then began to try to fight her way out of the cuffs, shouting, “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me!”
The reports then say six members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team put her into full restraints. But she wouldn’t bend her knees to get into the chair, and was then shocked.
She was then moved to an entryway, where, the Post says, she had a medical emergency.
She was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she was declared brain dead. She was removed from life support Feb. 8.
Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid declined to comment to the Post, but said using a stun gun on a restrained person was “a means that is often useful to ensure the safety of a person,” not merely a way to force them to do something.
She called the incident “a tragedy.”
