2 Officers Face Murder Charges After Using Taser on Man More Than 50 Times, Officials Say

Spencer Bryan, a lawyer for Mr. Lakey’s parents, Doug and Cynthia Lakey, said both officers had initially claimed that they used Tasers on Mr. Lakey only four times. He said the charges were appropriate given what was shown on Mr. Taylor’s body camera footage, which he said the city of Wilson had allowed him to view.

“I have never seen a more disturbing video,” Mr. Bryan said in an email. “After watching it, I cannot understand how the city allowed officers who exhibited such gross recklessness, resulting in a man’s death, to continue working. We have great confidence the evidence supports the charges.”

Mr. Bryan said that the Lakey family had filed a public records lawsuit and a federal civil rights lawsuit in connection with Mr. Lakey’s death. Both lawsuits are pending.

In the public records lawsuit, filed in September, Ms. Lakey is seeking body camera footage, witness statements, photographs and police radio logs. The lawsuit states that Mr. Lakey’s body was riddled with Taser probes and says that medical providers had told the family that Mr. Lakey died from multiple heart attacks.

The lawsuit states that radio logs from just before midnight on July 4, 2019, around the time that Mr. Lakey was shocked with the Tasers, documented a single report of a man “screaming and running down the road.” It stated that there was no indication that Mr. Lakey had committed a serious offense and no indication that he had threatened Mr. Taylor or Mr. Dingman.

A debate over the use of Tasers was reignited last month after the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who was found asleep in a car in a drive-through at a Wendy’s in Atlanta. Mr. Brooks, 27, had fled from the police after failing a sobriety test, and grabbed a Taser from an officer during a struggle, the authorities said.

A former Atlanta police officer, Garrett Rolfe, was later charged with murder and aggravated assault in the killing of Mr. Brooks. Mr. Rolfe’s partner, Devin Brosnan, was charged with three counts, including aggravated assault and violations of oath. Both Mr. Brosnan and Mr. Rolfe are white.