Family: Police Should Never Have Tased Him

SCOTLAND NECK, N.C. - He was shocked by an officer's stun gun while riding his bike.

Now, an elderly man from Halifax County is dead and his family along with a city mayor is asking why.

Police say 61-year-old Roger Anthony was riding his bike along a road in Scotland Neck when he was ordered by an officer to stop.

Apparently, officers had received a call about a man on a bike who fell and may have been drunk.

When Anthony failed to respond to the officer, whose only been on the force for a month, he shocked Anthony with a stun gun.

Now Anthony's family is demanding to know why. They tells us they plan to take legal action against the police department.

They're also expecting a preliminary report on the investigation sometime today.

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SCOTLAND NECK, N.C. (WNCT) - Scotland Neck police say the incident is still under investigation but confirm the man was sent to the hospital and later died after being tasered by a rookie police officer.

The police are releasing very little information at this point, but the family says 61-year-old

Roger Anthony should never have been tasered.

"I talked with the chief and asked him why did they tase him but they can't give me an affirmation,” said Milton Freeman.

Freeman says his brother in law, Roger Anthony was leaving a gas station Monday night on his favorite bicycle that he rode all the time.

The police chief says someone called 9-1-1 when they saw Anthony fall, thinking he was drunk.

Police say Anthony was riding his bike right here near 10th and Greenwood streets when an officer turned on his lights and told him to stop. The family says Anthony was hard of hearing, and they say when he didn't respond, the officer tased him.

“What law did he break for you to tase him? There’s no explanation for it, its excessive,” said Freeman.

The family says when Anthony was tased he fell off of his bike an hit his head on the pavement.

He was airlifted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in critical condition, where he later died.

“When I got home my wife told me I just dropped my bag down and just said why he didn't hurt anybody all he wanted was his coffee,” said Allen Anthony, Roger Anthony’s nephew.

“My brother in law was basically harmless, six foot two 120 to 130 pounds I mean the cop could run up and say hey! Anything other than tase him on a bike,” Freeman said.

The police department says officer john turner was the one who tased Anthony and has only been working for the department a little more than a month.

The chief of police wouldn't talk with us on camera but says the SBI is being brought in to investigate the case.

The family says the police department won't give them answers, and now they are left with just one question.

"I just want to know why, the family just wants to know why, that's the only thing we want to know is why?"

The family says they will be taking legal action against the police station.