Coroner rules Waco Taser death a suicide

By Vince Mancini

Published on August 16, 2005

Robert Earl Williams, Jr., 62, died on June 15 while fighting with police. According to a report by the chief medical examiner for the Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas, Williams died from "acute physiologic stress associated with multiple electrical shocks during attempted restraint by police for schizophrenia with excited delirium."

Barnard wrote that high-blood pressure, heart disease, and complications from obesity and diabetes also contributed to the 6-foot-1, 280-pound Williams' death.

The case will be presented to the McLennan County District Attorney's Office for possible review by a grand jury, a police spokesman said.

Police shocked Williams after he refused arrest and threatened officers with a piece of rebar, police said. The Taser had no apparent effect on Williams, according to the officers, even after he was shot three additional times.

Once subdued and on the ground, Williams complained that he was having trouble breathing. He had stopped breathing by the time an ambulance arrived, according to police.

Austin attorney Vic Feazell, a former McLennan County district attorney said he has been hired by the Williams family and is considering a civil suit against the city of Waco and Taser International Inc.

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