By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST PRICE HILL - City and police officials and trainers lauded the first use of a Taser gun on a man believed to be mentally ill. "The deployment of the new Taser was effective and achieved the desired effect," City Manager Valerie Lemmie wrote Friday in a memo to Council and Mayor Charlie Luken. Tasers became a topic in Cincinnati after the Nov. 30 death in police custody of Nathaniel Jones, 41, whose violent struggle with officers ended when his heart stopped. Jones had cocaine, PCP and methanol in his system.

The city ordered 1,100 of the $779 weapons, the third-largest U.S. order for Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Cincinnati police Spc. John Rose fired a Taser at Johnny King, 33, of the 1000 block of Winfield Avenue Thursday after one of King's friends called police to report he was acting oddly.

Rose fired the Taser after two other attempts to subdue him failed, authorities said.

A Taser gun fires two barbs attached to insulated metal wires, which then administer an electrical shock. The electrical current is meant to temporarily immobilize a person's muscles.

The friend who called police found King in his apartment yelling, half naked, pacing and frothing at the mouth, according to police reports.

When officers arrived, they saw King through his first-story window, nude from the waist down and pacing in a circle in the living room in "an agitated manner," reports said.

Officers called for the police's Mental Health Response Team, and a supervisor tried to talk to King through the first-floor window but King didn't respond.

King appeared delusional and an immediate risk to himself, though he was not armed, reports said. Authorities said King remained unresponsive even after police warned him they were going to use force on him to comply.

Officers first fired four to six pepper balls, striking King in the legs and thighs, but they had no effect. When the balls burst they emit an irritant meant to incapacitate the person. After another warning, a second volley was deployed, striking King in the abdomen. Again, there with no effect.

Then, another officer fired a foam round that struck King in the abdomen. But King continued to pace and didn't respond.

"They had absolutely no effect on him and the next option would be to have a group of officers go in and physically subdue this individual in order that he could be taken to the hospital to seek the treatment he needed," recalled Lt. Doug Ventre, commander of the police department's tactical unit.

Officers called for Ventre's unit, which has the Tasers and is trained to use them. After King also was unresponsive to Rose and Streicher authorized use of the Taser, the police specialist fired through his window, striking King in the back, police records show.

"It was textbook deployment and worked exactly as we expected it to work," Ventre said. "As a result, the subject was not injured in any way from the Taser. No officers were injured. It was a successful deployment."

After officers fired the Taser, King fell to the floor, was handcuffed and taken to University Hospital. He remained there Friday, where he was being treated for a mental illness, not for any injuries from the Taser, according to Lemmie's memo.

More than 200 of the police department's new Tasers arrived last week and more are coming next week, Ventre said.

"We are trying to find less risky ways to control situations or to subdue somebody," Councilman Jim Tarbell said Friday. "It would appear this is a convincing one and so far with this case that seems to be true."

Steve Tuttle, spokesman for Tasers International, agreed Friday with Ventre that Thursday's deployment was a success. The company monitors use of its weapons.

"It sounds like they did everything very well. I love to hear that, especially on a first deployment," he said. "It's not a magic bullet, but it's about as close as you can get right now,'' Tuttle said. "It's definitely a great way to start things out in Cincinnati."

Taser International has trained 22 Cincinnati police officers to use the Tasers and those officers will train the rest of the force, Ventre said. About 45 to 55 officers at a time will undergo the eight-hour Taser training session each week, beginning Jan. 20.

Reporters Jane Prendergast and Gregory Korte contributed to this report. E mail jedwards@enquirer.com.