Man Shocked with Taser and Dies, Family Wants Explanation

A Cleveland man dies after being shocked by a taser, and his family wants to know why..

Edward Buckner had known hard times. He had just lost his job, his house and he had fallen into a depression. But while trying to get help, the unimaginable happened.

"I told him bye, i loved him and that was the last time i talked to him," Alice Buckner says. The last time she spoke to her husband Eddie was the day after Thanksgiving. He was being released from Erlanger, and taken back to Moccasin Bend mental health facility, a place he'd only been for just one day, after his family noticed a change in his behavior.

"He just started, at times he'd talk normal and at times it was like he was confused," Alice Buckner says.

A rise in blood pressure sent Eddie Buckner to Erlanger for several days. When it was time to leave, his wife says he told her he just wanted to go home.

"He simply did not want to go back to Moccasin bend," Buckner says. "He didn't want to go the first time."

Police say while they were trying to put Buckner in the van, he got combative with Erlanger and Hamilton County corrections officers. They wound up shocking him with a Taser. Once they subdued him, officers then loaded the 53-year-old into the van.

But when they got to Moccasin Bend, Buckner was unresponsive. Officers drove him back to Erlanger. He was pronounced dead.

"Y'all have to show me a camera, show my husband standing up there fighting with them before I believe them," Buckner says, fighting back tears.

His wife and children say at the time of the incident, Buckner was in a wheelchair, weak from weight loss and dehydration. They say they were told by Erlanger staff he'd fallen out of the wheelchair and onto the ground. And they say Erlanger administrators told them officers shocked him with the Taser three times, all while he was still on the ground.

"I just wanna know why they didn't sedate him?" Buckner's son Steven asks. "There was six guys there, why didn't they just pick him up and put him in the van?"

Buckner's other son Nathan says there were other signs that this case doesn't add up either: "All the cuts and marks on his head, we can't figure out where those came from."

Chattanooga police are now questioning the Erlanger and Hamilton County corrections officers involved in the incident. A department spokesperson says they'll be looking into how many times Buckner was shocked with the Taser and if it caused his death.

The investigation hinges on the medical examiner's autopsy which, as of Monday evening, was not yet complete.

Alice Buckner is hoping that report will give her family the answers they need.

"There was no cause for three Tasers," Buckner cries. "I wanna know why you had to do that three times to my husband. And him already sick and weak and coming out of that hospital like that?"