VIDEO: Portland Police Deploy TASER at Armed Man in Market
Portland police said they fired multiple TASER shots at a 47-year-old man who was spotted shoplifting and then grabbed knives from a display rack in an aisle of a Whole Foods Store early Friday, reports The Oregonian.
A witness videotaped part of the encounter and posted it on YouTube. Police released it Monday.
Officers can be heard yelling, "Drop the knife! Get down on your knees!''
In a news release, Portland police said a sergeant recognized the man armed with the knives as the subject of earlier calls who suffers from a mental illness.
The sergeant fired his TASER at him after he refused commands to drop the knives. The man, according to police, dropped to the ground and dropped the knives. But the man continued to struggle immediately afterward, prompting three more TASER ECD cycles, and again as police walked him to a waiting cruiser.