MIAMI, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A Miami mother and son have been charged with resisting arrest without violence for trying to protect another son from a police stun gun, an attorney said.
In April, Ana V. Ramirez called 911 for help when a son with Down syndrome went into a rage, but she warned police not to use a stun gun because the son had a heart condition, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
When an officer did use a stun gun on Christopher Pagan, 25, Ramirez tried to help him, the report said.
Pagan was shot with the stun gun six times and his mother once when Miami-Dade police officer Idania Felipe responded to the scene, the newspaper said.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against Ramirez and her other son, 21-year-old Hernando Yunis, last month, but refiled them after police complained, the woman's attorney said.
"In this case, the young prosecutor absolutely did the right thing and dumped the case," defense attorney Ricardo P. Hermida said. But he said the state was "browbeaten into a bogus refile."
Felipe said she used the stun gun after Pagan charged her, and that she feared for her safety. She said Ramirez and Yunis "continued to obstruct and resist my efforts to perform my lawful duties."
A prosecutor in the case said charges were "mistakenly dropped" when it was thought the state's witnesses failed to appear in court.
