UK police Taser race relations advisor

  • 22/01/2017

A race relations advisor in the UK was Tasered in the face on Saturday (local time) after officers wrongly believed he was a wanted man.

Judah Adunbi, 63, founded an organisation helping relations between local police and ethnic minority groups and told ITV News it was the second time he was mistaken for a Bristol drug dealer.

Footage obtained of the second incident show him refusing to give his name to the officers, who followed Mr Adunbi as he tried to go into his house.

One officer can be seen grabbing Mr Abundi and forcing him out of the garden area, before the second officer stuns him in the face at close range with the Taser.

His neighbour filmed the incident, and in the video can be heard slamming the officers' actions as being "totally uncalled for and unnecessary".

Mr Abundi told ITV News he had a disabled shoulder from the last time he was confronted by officers, seven years ago.

"I was terrified, I was frightened, because the same scenario was happening all over again," he said.

"The first thing they should have done is come to me in a polite manner. The way they approached me, they were accusing me. That is wrong."

Both officers remain at work, according to ITV News, but the shooting is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

"We work really hard to work positively with all communities and I see no reason why that should change," says Chief Superintendent Jon Reilly from Avon and Somerset Police.

Mr Abundi says he thought he was going to die.

"I felt that was it, because of the way I fell back, the way I fell backward on the back of my head. I was just paralysed. I thought that was it."

Newshub.