Stun gun used on woman at McDonald's

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Sheriff's deputies used a stun gun on a woman who was holding up the drive-through line at a North Carolina McDonald's restaurant, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Deputies used what is called a "drive stun," not a full stun-gun hit, on Evangeline Marrero Lucca, 37, said Debbie Tanna of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Lucca cut to the front of the line at the McDonald's in Fayetteville Friday afternoon and sat there for about 20 minutes before deputies arrived, The Fayetteville Observer reported.

"She did not want to wait in line," Tanna said. "They told her she had to go around and wait like everybody else did and place her order that way, that they weren't set up at that window to take her order or take her money. ... She wasn't having any of that."

Tanna said Lucca refused to move her vehicle and got confrontational with employees.

"When we arrived, she really got mad," Tanna said.

Customer Anthony Rich, who witnessed the incident, said deputies ordered Lucca out of the car but she refused. He said this continued for 20 minutes or so before officers forced Lucca out of her vehicle.

"Two or three officers entered the car with her and started trying to forcibly drag her out of the car and that's when you could hear the clicking sound of the Taser one time," Rich said. "They pulled on her a couple of times and then they Tased her again and when they Tased her the second time she just flopped out of the car like a fish."

Lucca was charged with second-degree trespassing.

Social workers took custody of her 3-year-old child, who was in the car at the time of the incident, Tanna said.

"Our top priority was making sure people weren't hurt because we didn't know if she was going to drive the car off and run over somebody," Tanna said. "Then there was the baby in the car we were concerned about."

A drive stun involves removing the Taser cartridge and touching the weapon directly on the skin to create a "pain compliance effect," the Fayetteville Police Department's "use of force" policy says.

The method allows officers to restrain a suspect without fully incapacitating the person, it says.