editorial comment So, he died of an overdose then.....

A man shocked with a Taser by deputies in West Park died from cardiac arrest induced by cocaine in his system, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff's Office said Sunday.

Deputies used a Taser stun gun on Horace Owens, 48, after he broke into a home in the 5000 block of Southwest 21st Street Saturday night. Owens pushed around the 60-year-old homeowner and fought back when deputies tried to arrest him, according to BSO.

Veda Coleman-Wright, a spokeswoman for BSO, said the Broward Medical Examiner's Office ruled that it was cocaine, and not the shock from the Taser, that sent Owens into cardiac arrest. The manner of death was ruled accidental. The Medical Examiner's Office referred all questions to BSO.

As Owens, of Fort Lauderdale, lay motionless in the swale outside the house, deputies tried to revive him. But he was pronounced dead at Memorial Regional Hospital about an hour later.

Owens' family said they believed the Taser contributed to his death.

''He had an enlarged heart and he was diabetic. If he was on drugs, it was still wrong for them to do that,'' Owens' sister, Florrie Owens, 42, said about subduing Owens with the stun gun.

Owens' family said he was mentally ill, and he battled a cocaine addiction for most of his life before getting clean about three years ago. Owens had been convicted on numerous cocaine and burglary charges. Between 1983 and 2002, he spent about 11 years in prison.

But in recent years, Owens had started to get his life back in order, family members said. He'd recently reconnected with his son, Horace Owens Jr., and his proudest moment came recently when he saw his boy graduate from a college in Tennessee.

With the help of an organization that helps recovering addicts get back on their feet, Owens had spent the past few years living in a small Fort Lauderdale apartment, doing handiwork and landscaping around Broward County, his family said. Owens' family acknowledged that he may have slipped back into his cocaine addiction Saturday night. He attempted to break into several houses before forcing his way into the home of Macarthur Hodges, who was watching television when Owens barged in.

'He ran in screaming, `Someone's trying to kill me, please don't let him kill me!,' '' Hodges said. ``He was acting crazy.''

Hodges said the six-foot-four, 249-pound Owens then picked him up out of his chair and ''slung'' him around. Owens then ran into a bedroom and locked himself inside.

When deputies arrived and tried to arrest Owens, he fought them, witnesses said.

''He was throwing them around like a bag of potatoes,'' said Hodges. They shot him with the Taser, but at first that just made him more wild. Then he went down.''

Owens was pronounced dead at Memorial Regional Hospital shortly after 7 p.m.

More than 100 people have died nationally since 1999 after being shocked with a Taser, including deaths in Hollywood, Delray Beach and Naples. Many of those who died were drug users.

There is widespread debate over whether Tasers are a contributing factor in such deaths, and Amnesty International has called for a moratorium on their use until the effects of the devices are more thoroughly studied.

''While coroners have tended to attribute such deaths to other factors [like drug intoxication], some medical experts question whether the Taser shocks may exacerbate a risk of heart failure in cases where people are agitated, under the influence of drugs, or have underlying health problems such as heart disease,'' the organization said in a statement released last year.

The Arizona Republic reviewed autopsy reports in 71 deaths following Taser use and found that medical examiners blamed the Tasers for two of the deaths, and that the devices contributed to four others

But the gun's manufacturer, Taser International, insists that its research shows the weapon is safe.

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