16 minutes were enough for three agents from Jackon (Mississippi, USA) discharged up to 52 times their taser pistol on a detainee. The man offered no resistance at any time during the arrest, but the police applied all their force against him. The events occurred last New Year’s Eve, but it was only now that the local authorities have released the images recorded by the agents’ body cameras. All three have been fired and have been charged in the death of Keith Murriel, 41, the father of two.

“Two of the officers are charged with second-degree murder and the third is charged with manslaughter.”Jody E. Owens, Hinds County District Attorney, commented at a press conference. Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land, already former agents of the Jackson Police Department, went to the area alerted by the guard of a hotel that Keith Murriel was supposedly trying to access. After unsuccessfully asking him to leave the area, the policemen pinned him to the ground to arrest him. Faced with the apparent difficulty in handcuffing him, one of them began to discharge the taser at him.

According to Murriel’s family lawyers, there were 80 electric shocks that the detainee received. However, according to investigations, there would have been at least 52. The agents also took half an hour to notify emergencies, during which time the man lay unconscious in the back seats of the police vehicle. The emergency personnel were unable to revive him, so they took him to a hospital where they could only certify his death.

While Murriel was treated in the ambulance, the agents began to talk among themselves and joke about what happened: “It was easy to throw him to the ground”, commented one of the policemen, who added: “I loved seeing how he raised his legs in the air”. Laughter is also heard, as can be seen in the video that accompanies these lines. Two of the agents have been released from prison after paying their bail, between 70,000 and 140,000 euros. The third has not been arrested.