6 officers in Raleigh, North Carolina, are on leave after a man shocked by a police stun gun died in custody

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN

Six officers have been put on administrative leave in Raleigh, North Carolina, in connection with the death of a man in custody Tuesday after he was shocked by a stun gun.

Officers responding to a “suspicious vehicle” just before 2 a.m. tried to arrest the man, who they say resisted, “and a Taser was deployed,” the Raleigh Police Department said in a news release.

After he was in custody, the man became unresponsive, police said. Officers tried life-saving measures, and an ambulance took the man to a hospital, where he died, they said.

The officers and the victim were not named by police.

The case comes as police use of force is under scrutiny nationwide and internal and criminal probes have launched in US cities in cases in which people died after police shocked them with Taser-style weapons. An English teacher and cousin of a Black Lives Matter founder died this month in Los Angeles after officers repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun, police said.

The six officers involved in this week’s death in Raleigh are on administrative leave, which is standard protocol for an in-custody death, the news release said.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has been contacted to conduct an investigation alongside a probe by the Raleigh Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, police said.

Police expect to present a preliminary report on the incident to the city manager in five days, they said.

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