editorial comment 74 killed by Taser....how many by pot again? Way to go gents. No need to go to Iraq to suffer abuses by men in uniform.

Hollywood · Police say a zap of 50,000 volts from a Taser stun gun didn't slow Kevin Downing on Wednesday night, much less kill him.

They think drugs or alcohol made the 6-foot-3, 280-pound man delirious, sparking a commotion police were trying to piece together Thursday.

They know he yelled at paramedics, wrestled with police and later died in a hospital. The cause of death is still undetermined.

Downing was grunting incoherently in the middle of Sheridan Street about 7:45 p.m., said Hollywood police spokesman Capt. Tony Rode. The white van he drove for Airstron Inc., an air-conditioning company, blocked two lanes of traffic.

The 36-year-old married stepfather of three, from Coral Springs, screamed something at paramedics who stopped to help him. They called police, sparking a confrontation that police didn't describe in full detail because it is an open investigation.

Police did say that they wrestled with Downing. At some point, an officer shot him with a Taser M-26, hitting him in the chest with the gun's two fishhook-like probes. The charge didn't paralyze his muscles and knock him to the ground like it was supposed to, police said.

"He kept fighting," said Detective Carlos J. Negrón, without giving details.

It took at least three officers to control and handcuff Downing, who was then loaded into an ambulance and taken to Memorial Regional Hospital. He was still grunting on the way into the emergency room, where he later died, Rode said.

Police did not give a timeline for Wednesday night's struggle. They also did not say how much time passed between the Taser shock and Downing's death.

The Broward County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy Thursday, but is awaiting further standard tests -- including a toxicology screening -- before determining a cause of death.

Police, however, believe the toxicology results will explain what went wrong.

"It is our position that Mr. Downing was most likely under the influence of some type of substance, whether it was alcohol or narcotics related," said Rode, citing Downing's bizarre behavior and other evidence he declined to discuss. "We stand by the use of the M-26 Taser, and the judgment used by our officer."

Downing's family declined to comment through their attorney, Ramon Tourgeman. However, neighbors described him as a likeable man who helped others during the hurricanes and who had just finished hanging his Christmas lights.

"He was very friendly. I just waved to him two days ago," said a neighbor, Marisa Scheuerer. "He knew I was a single mom and was always asking if I needed help with anything."

Downing had no criminal record in Florida but served 18 months in a New York prison, starting in 1986, for burglary and possession of stolen goods, according to the Queens County District Attorney's Office.

Downing's death -- the second after being shot by a Taser in Hollywood in two years -- has added fodder to an already simmering national debate.

The stun guns are used by more than 5,000 police departments nationwide, including 200 in Florida.

Late last month, an Amnesty International report said 74 people died in the United States and Canada over the past three years after being shocked by a Taser. Heart problems, drugs or asphyxiation were the actual causes of death, coroners determined.

In the first Hollywood death, the medical examiner found cocaine -- not a Taser -- killed Vinnie Del' Ostia, 31.

Still, in more than 10 instances, medical examiners said Tasers contributed to death, Amnesty International spokesman Edward Jackson said from his Washington, D.C., office.

While advocating the use of nonlethal weapons in general, the organization wants police departments to suspend use of the stun gun until more research is conducted.

"When it comes to Tasers, there's no independent medical evidence showing that they're safe to use," Jackson said. "If it hasn't been proven these things are safe, they shouldn't be used on the street."

A U.S. Department of Defense study also recommended more testing on how Tasers affect sensitive or intoxicated people, but did not say they should be banned.

Policies vary among departments on when to use a Taser. Some restrict their use to a level just shy of lethal force, while others allow Tasers as an alternative to pepper spray, Jackson said.

Defenders say stun guns actually save lives because officers use them rather than guns.

Miami-Dade County police, who have used Tasers since June 2003, made national news this fall when officers shocked a 12-year-old girl skipping class and a 6-year-old boy threatening to cut himself with a shard of glass.

A spokesman for Taser International, the Scottsdale, Ariz., manufacturer of the weapons, stands by the gun's "life-saving value" and offered to assist in the investigation of Wednesday night's episode.

Staff Writers Toni Marshall, Tania Valdemoro and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

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