East GR man dies after police use stun guns on him
Wed, Nov 18, 2009 
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BY JAMES PRICHARD
Associated Press Writer
EAST GRAND RAPIDS — A Kent County man has died following a confrontation with two police officers who subdued him with stun guns, authorities said Tuesday.
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Police said Matthew Bolick, 30, died Monday night at his home in East Grand Rapids.
Chief Mark A. Herald, director of the East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety, said officers were dispatched to the house around 9 p.m. Bolick's father had called to report that his son was being violent and had injured himself breaking a picture window in the back of the home.
"There was some issue going on with Mr. Bolick," Herald said at a news conference. "We're not sure what caused him to have this behavior."
When an officer arrived, Bolick confronted him in the street and punched him in the face, Herald said. The officer discharged his Taser at him with no apparent effect.
Bolick then ran into his house with that officer and a second officer, who had arrived separately, in pursuit. After a struggle in which the officers fired their stun guns two or three more times, they took Bolick into custody, Herald said.
Although an ambulance crew was on the scene, Bolick died at the house around 9:45 p.m.
The Kent County medical examiner's office performed an autopsy Tuesday and reported that its preliminary findings indicated there was no internal trauma. The office is awaiting toxicology results before making a final determination of the cause of death.
Herald declined to speculate whether the stun guns contributed to the death but said he believed his officers acted accordingly. Video cameras mounted in the Tasers and on the dashboards of the officers' cruisers captured the events as they unfolded — but he declined to release the videos to reporters, saying they were evidence.
The officers are experienced police veterans who were trained to properly use the department's electronic control devices, which were purchased in January, he said.
"They may deploy the Taser whenever there is active resistance," Herald said when asked about the department's policy on their use.
Bolick was the first person to be targeted with any of the department's Tasers. Herald said he is not aware of anyone else who has died while in the custody of East Grand Rapids officers.
The two officers were placed on administrative leave. Herald asked Grand Rapids police to handle the investigation of the death while his department conducts an internal investigation.
A young man leaving Bolick's home declined to comment about the death, but WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids reported that the family issued a statement late Tuesday afternoon.
"This is a tragic loss and he is being portrayed in a negative light," the statement said. "Please withhold judgment until all the facts are known."
