Police use stun gun on 6-year-old

MIAMI, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Police say a 6-year-old Florida boy wasn't hurt when they shocked him with a 50,000-volt taser to keep him from cutting himself with a piece of glass.

"We know the child was not harmed other than the little tiny probe pricks you get with the taser. What we do not know is if the child would or would not have subsequently cut his vein. Had the child cut his vein and the officer had not tasered the child, somebody would be saying, 'Well, you had the taser. Why didn't you taser the child?'" Police Director Bobby Parker told the Miami Herald of the Oct. 20 incident at Kelsey Pharr Elementary in Brownsville.

But child welfare advocates and others involved in law enforcement are questioning the judgment that led to the use of the stun gun.

"It just sounds excessive to me to taser gun a 6-year-old when everyone else around there were adults. They couldn't subdue a 6-year-old? Must have been a pretty big kid," said retired Broward County Juvenile Judge Frank Orlando.

"Those things are designed for adults; they're not designed for children. The whole idea is to disarm somebody who's a real threat. It's a substitute for shooting the person. When you start using it for other things, for potty training, that's not too good," said former Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Joe Davis.