Police use of Taser questioned

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The police chief in Daytona Beach, Fla., defends an officer who used a Taser to subdue a woman during an altercation at a Best Buy store.

The incident in November began with a misunderstanding, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Marian Beeland, a yoga instructor, received an upsetting call on her cell phone and walked out of the store, leaving her purchase and credit card at a cash register.

The store clerk, thinking that the credit card might be stolen, alerted Officer Claudia Wright, who was in the store. Wright confronted Beeland outside.

Wright says that Beeland yelled at her, at one point using profanity and refused to follow instructions. She said she warned Beeland that she could be arrested and might be stunned with the Taser unless she calmed down.

After being stunned, Beeland was charged with disorderly conduct and non-violent resisting arrest.

Police Chief Mike Chitwood suggested Beeland was lucky.

"I was never raised on Tasers," the chief said. "I used nightsticks and slapjacks."

He said that Wright had to assume that if Beeland refused to listen to commands eventually she would become violent.