Target: Nicholas Gaubert is considering suing the police
By CHRIS BROOKE
A diabetic in a coma and in need of urgent medical attention was shot with a stun gun by police who feared he was a suicide bomber.
Nicholas Gaubert’s bizarre ordeal happened just six days after the July 7 bombings with the country in a state of high alert.
But apart from wearing a rucksack and being on a bus, he is bewildered as to how he could be mistaken for a terrorist.
Last night he accused police of using him for “target practice”.
The 34-year-old bistro owner and son of a magistrate has been dependent on insulin for 20 years.
He was on his way to meet friends for a drink after work when he fell into a diabetic coma on the top deck of a bus in his home town of Leeds. He says he was the only passenger on board.
He does not remember any more until he woke up in the back of a police van in handcuffs, initially fearing he had been kidnapped.
It appears armed police had been called to the bus and shot him twice with a Taser gun after he failed to respond to their orders.
Yesterday, after discovering the two police officers involved would not be prosecuted, he spoke out about his shocking experience on July 13 2005, nine days before the shooting in London of Jean Charles de Menezes.
“I am disgusted that no action will be taken,” he said. “The only thing that could have made people suspicious of me was that I had a black rucksack with me.
“But I am a white male, and if I was planning to blow up the bus, why didn’t I do it when there were passengers on board?
“Senior officers also told me after the incident that the policemen who came on the bus had been told not to use weapons on me if I did not respond.
“I think they just saw it as an opportunity to try out their toys.”
Mr Gaubert has been told the second officer on the bus was armed with a real gun. “It sends a shiver down my spine,” he said. “He had a rifle pressed against my temple. I suppose I should be glad they decided to use the Taser.”
Mr Gaubert, whose parents are retired GPs was dressed in a shirt and suit trousers and wearing a special necklace to alert people to his diabetic condition.
“I was in a diabetic coma. I could have died and all they were bothered about was whether I was going to blow up an empty, stationary bus.”
From the back of the police van, Mr Gaubert eventually persuaded officers to take him to hospital for treatment.
“I just remember waking up in the back of a van and I could hear people talking in the front. I genuinely thought I’d been kidnapped.
1 response so far ↓
Freedom Rider // November 18, 2007 at 10:28 am
The following taken from a Daily Mail article:-
‘Police will be allowed to shoot children with Taser stun guns despite concerns they could trigger heart attacks.
Officers in ten forces will be able to use the 50,000-volt weapons – which paralyse targets for a short time – against all potentially violent offenders.
However campaigners have called for police to be banned from using Tasers on children.
The Defence Scientific Advisory Council medical committee told the Home Office that not enough was known about the risks of using Tasers against youngsters.
The committee said research suggests there was a risk children could suffer a “serious cardiac event”.
It recommended that officers should be “particularly vigilant” for any health problems suffered as a direct result of someone being shot with a Taser.
And it added that guidelines should be updated to highlight the risks to children and “adults of small stature”.
Amnesty International claims Tasers have been responsible for 220 deaths in America since 2001.
Many cities in the U.S. have banned their use against minors. In Britain, fears have been raised that the one-year trial could compromise public safety if it is not carefully handled.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said the pilot projects had to be conducted with “great caution and rigour”.
The Association of Chief Police Officers said Tasers would be made available at incidents of “violence and threats of violence of such severity that they will need force”.
The Tasers fire barbed darts into their victims and deliver powerful electric shocks via a copper wire. They are intended to be a ‘less lethal’ alternative to regular police weapons.
They were first introduced in the UK in 2003 and have been deployed several dozen times.
Police Minister Tony McNulty failed to mention that Government advisors had warned of a potential risk to children’.
Sort of goes against the present government’s Fabian Socialist dogma that states :-
EVERY CHILD COUNTS!