Police: Burglary suspect dies after officers used stun gun

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A home burglary suspect has died after police used a stun gun on him, authorities said, adding the suspect resisted officers who found him wrapped in material that looked like it came from house air conditioner ducts.

Birmingham Police Lt. Sean Edwards said a homeowner in that Alabama city called police early Tuesday to report hearing glass breaking and someone yelling and growling in his basement.

A police statement said arriving officers told the homeowner to go next door for his safety while they checked out the home.

“As officers walked around the house they observed several windows broken,” the statement emailed by Edwards said. “They entered the home and observed a white male in shorts only wrapped up in material that looked like the air conditioner duct work.”

Edwards said the suspect didn’t comply with verbal orders of the officers, and they used a stun gun several times as he continued to resist them.

The statement said officers then “closed in on the suspect” and handcuffed him, taking him from the home to await medics.

The unidentified suspect was later pronounced dead at a hospital where he was taken, according to police. Neither police nor the county coroner had released the name of the dead man on Wednesday morning, and police did not release any information about the officers involved.

Edwards said the burglary suspect acted “extremely irritated” throughout the encounter with police and growled at officers.

The police statement said the State Bureau of Investigation was called to investigate and that it wasn’t immediately known if the suspect had a previous medical condition or was under the influence of some foreign substance.

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