HOUSTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Family members say a 29-year-old man who died after being shocked by a Taser in a Texas jail suffered from a bipolar disorder.
Daryl Dwayne Kelley collapsed in a cell Friday at the Harris County facility 40 minutes after a member of an Emergency Response Team used a Taser to subdue him, so he could be moved to a second-floor mental health unit, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Kelley was taken to Christus St. Joseph Hospital, where he died.
"He had a mental problem and they Tasered him," his mother, Pearline Kelley, told the newspaper. "He's schizophrenic and he was on medication. They should have put him somewhere where they could've helped him."
Harris County Sheriff's Department Maj. Don McWilliams said Kelley, who was 6-feet-tall and weighed 300 pounds, had refused to take his medications and reacted violently toward the response team.
"Everything was done in accordance with our training protocols," McWilliams said. "It is fully routine to use Tasers to move large, violent inmates."
