Sack for policeman who Tasered girl, 10

A police officer in a small US town who used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl was fired for violating department policy – not for using the Taser itself but for failing to use the camera attached to it, according to the town’s mayor.

Vernon McDaniel, the Mayor of Ozark, Arkansas said he received notice of Officer Dustin Bradshaw’s firing yesterday morning.

Mr Bradshaw previously was suspended for seven days with pay. His termination was effective from Friday.

“The policy that Officer Bradshaw failed to obey is failure to have his camera placed on his Taser,” police Chief Jim Noggle wrote in a memo to Mr McDaniel.

“It is the officer’s duty to insure all of his equipment is present and in working order.”

The mayor said Mr Bradshaw would receive unpaid vacation and holiday time.

Police were called to the home November 11 after the girl’s mother couldn’t get her to take a shower.

Mr Bradshaw’s report said the girl was “violently kicking and verbally combative” when Mr Bradshaw tried to take her into custody, and she kicked him in the groin. He said he delivered “a very brief drive stun to her back”.

“Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to,” Mr Bradshaw wrote.

The girl, who hasn’t been identified, wasn’t injured. She was taken to the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.

The police chief’s memo said Mr Bradshaw had been warned earlier to turn on the Taser’s camera and to wear his lapel microphone.