WATERVILLE, Maine — A Waterville teenager who tried to outrun a shoplifting charge wound up being shocked with a Taser and arrested, according to police.
Officers sent to the Hannaford supermarket on Kennedy Memorial Drive around 7 p.m. Sunday found a group of individuals, including Alexander Meserve, 19, hanging out near the store, Waterville Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said.
While police were questioning the other individuals, Meserve took off on foot, Rumsey said.
Officers pursued Meserve and used a Taser to subdue him, Rumsey said. When police took him into custody, they found a bottle of Jagermeister that he had taken from the store, according to Rumsey.
Meserve was charged with being a minor possessing liquor, shoplifting and refusing to submit to arrest. He was unable to make $100 cash bail so he was taken to the Kennebec County Correctional Facility, where he remained Monday.
He got his “buzz” on, no worries.
Seriously? They tased someone over a $15 bottle of alcohol? Kind of over-kill, isn’t it?
I can understand if he was approaching the cop in a threatening manner, but to use a taser because of a petty shoplifting crime?
Likely they tasered him for refusing to submit to arrest. You’re right, shoplifting alone wouldn’t be justification.
So if I shop lift and resist arrest, the cops should just leave me alone since it was just over a $10/$20 item? I am sure that would make business owners feel oh so happy.
He was tasered for not submitting, which implies to me that he was fighting them.
They didn’t know about the booze and shoplifting until after he was subdued.
I agree it is more than necessary under the circumstances. It is like using an elephant gun to kill an ant.
and you know what was necessary or not? Maybe the cops should have beat him with batons instead of using a taser? What he was stealing is irrelevant. He needed to be arrested, and that was going to be the end result whether he liked it or not.
Said they used a taser to subdue him. Though we do not know the whole story, if he is just running I think a taser is a little too much (pardon the expression) juice. It seems like the officer did not want to run after him, though that brings in a whole other bunch of problems. Sometimes I think they could use a taser, in to easy of a circumstance. Again, I am saying this without knowing the whole situation.
jagermeister=liquid dum dum.
I think this guy was a dum dum long before the Jagermeister.
Officers pursued Meserve and used a Taser to subdue him
I’d be surprised if the guy ran, and they simply tazed him from behind while running after him. i’d bet there was a struggle of some sort and they needed to subdue him.
I doubt that. More likely he was running away and they tazed him because they’re too lazy to give chase. A good question will be whether they had any right to hold him in the first place.
Got off easy.Should have been tazed,billy clubbed,and given a side order of pepper spray.Then should have been forced to chug-a-lug the entire bottle of Jagermeister.
Call it tough love.
If you have seen most city cops it wouldn’t surprise you that they didn’t give chase.
Staties on the other hand could give Usain Bolt a run for his money.
Pour a pint of Jagermeister into your gas tank twice a year.Great for cleaning fuel injectors.
Sounds like a case of blue light syndrome……
He got exactly what he deserved and i hope his so called friends were watching him twitch and soil his pants. A thief is a thief no matter the dollar amount. Society seems to be condemning the police for doing their job. Scary,scary times we are in…………..
It seems like every time a story about the police tasing someone a chorus of “too much force” is sure to follow. when police shoot some one,we hear “why didn’t they shoot to wound?” or “why didn’t they tase him?” Maybe if we replace the police’ weapons with flowers and chocolates all would be well. then again,we would hear from some complaining that there might be peanuts in the candy.