Virginia prosecutor: Culpeper officers’ Taser use justified

CULPEPER, Va. – Prosecutors won’t pursue charges against Culpeper police officers who used stun guns on a man during a scuffle before his death.

Culpeper County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Walther announced Thursday that his office has determined their use of force against Dominick Ray Wise to be “objectively reasonable.”

Police said the 30-year-old black man tried to flee from an officer who spotted him behaving erratically and appearing intoxicated in March 2015. Other officers arrived and he resisted arrest, swinging and kicking.

Wise died in a hospital about 14 hours after police stunned him three times with Tasers during the struggle. The medical examiner said the cause was “acute stress-induced cardiac arrhythmia.”

An autopsy also found that Wise’s body had 11 times the amount of PCP needed to be considered under the influence.