New report sheds new light into police Taser death of East Point man

EAST POINT, Ga. — Channel 2 has obtained an internal report on how East Point police handled the arrest of a man who died after repeated jolts from an officer's Taser.
 
A lawsuit, filed by the family of Gregory Towns, claims officer Tased him up to 13 times while he was in handcuffs.
 
Channel 2's Mark Winne received the internal affairs report from the Police Benevolent Association legal team representing an officer.
 
Attorney Dale Preiser said they "have nothing to hide."
 
The report apparently contains summaries, not verbatim interviews. 
 
The coversheet said "East Point Police Department Internal Affairs Division Reference: In-Custody Death."
 
The April death of Towns has since had plenty of external repercussions including wrongful a lawsuit against the city of East Point and two officers.
 
Lawyer Chris Stewart says he can prove Towns was not resisting when was stunned repeatedly with Tasers while handcuffed shortly before dying.
 
The internal affairs report seems to give new insight into the views of Sgt. Marcus Eberhart and Cpl. Howard Weems on using their Tasers.
 
"As a former Army medic Sgt. Eberhart said he never saw the suspect show any signs of medical distress," state the report.
 
It suggests Weems described the suspect as "alert" and indicated he "never mentioned any difficulty breathing, or issue with his heart."
 
On the other hand, the internal affairs report corroborates that Towns complained repeatedly he was tired.
 
It suggests Officer Irving Johnson, who chased Towns after a domestic call, "requested a signal 4, ambulance, for the subject after complaining of just being tired."
 
Then later, "the subject continued to complain about being tired."  Johnson also described him as "just non-compliant; stubborn."
 
A summary of an interview with Eberhart said at one point, "meanwhile the subject just kept complaining about being tired."
 
The report suggests Officer Nicole Allen said the suspect got up with help, walked several feet then stopped. "A process that repeated itself at least twice."
 
"She said she did not understand, and became frustrated, as to why they would Taser the suspect while only getting the same results."
 
Channel 2 learned Eberhart resigned in lieu of termination at the conclusion of an internal investigation into Towns' death.
 
Preiser said Weems continues to fight his proposed firing and he plans to get recordings of the internal affairs statements to confirm the report.

WSBTV