Original Article Assault suspect dies after police use Taser Associated Press May. 3, 2005 06:40 AM A 24-year-old man died early Tuesday about an hour after being shocked multiple times by with a Taser stun gun, a Phoenix police spokesman said. Police called for paramedics as soon as the man became unconscious, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Randy Force said Tuesday. The man was taken to a Paradise Valley hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Force said police encountered the man - who was suspected in an April 17 assault on a police officer - at a northeast Phoenix apartment, where they were trying to arrest him. When the man tried to run out a back door, the officers gave chase, and a female officer caught up with him and used her Taser on him. That didn't work, Force said, and a physical fight ensued. The male officer then used his Taser on the man, who was assaulting the female officer. "The female officer deployed her Taser but it had no effect," Force said. "At one point the suspect was on top of the female officer assaulting her. She has serious facial injuries and a swollen lip." Force said police are conducting two investigations into the death - one by the department's administrative professional standards team and another by a homicide unit, which is standard for any "in-custody" death, Force said. The Phoenix police department was one of the first and largest police departments in the country to arm all patrol officers with Tasers. About 1,200 Phoenix officers now carry the weapon. "I think it's safe to say that Tasers have allowed our officers, in hundreds of instances, to safely use a less-leathal means of subduing a suspect," Force said. This is the second death following a Taser use that the Phoenix department has recorded. In 2004 another man died following a Taser shock, but a medical examiner attributed the death to drugs in his system and a pre-existing enlarged heart, Force said. In July, a 29-year-old Flagstaff man died after he was shocked following a cocaine-fueled rampage in a Mesa convenience store. The man went into cardiac arrest after police shocked him seven times. In that case, an autopsy reported said that several shocks from the stun gun may have acted as a trigger in the death. However, the cause of death was ultimately ruled as complications of excited delirium due to cocaine. The human rights group Amnesty International has called for studies of how Tasers affect patients with cardiac problems, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, and many police departments across the country have said they intend to re-examine whether Tasers are a necessary part of officers' arsenal. In March, Amnesty International said Taser's weapons have been responsible for 103 deaths since June 2001. Taser has stood by studies demonstrating the safety of its weapons.