Two police officers are to appear in court charged with causing actual bodily harm after a 93-year-old, one-legged man was tasered in his wheelchair.
Donald Burgess - who suffered from dementia - died three weeks after the incident in St Leonards, East Sussex in June 2022.
Police were called to Park Beck care home in St Leonards-on-Sea after receiving reports about an elderly man threatening staff with a knife.
After speaking to Burgess, it is alleged that one officer pepper-sprayed him and then hit him with a baton.
Two police officers are to appear in court charged with causing actual bodily harm after a 93-year-old, one-legged man was tasered in his wheelchair
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The second officer then reportedly tasered him after he failed to drop the knife.
Burgess was handcuffed and arrested, but on arrival at the police station, his condition was deemed serious and he was taken to hospital.
It was then three weeks later that the 93-year-old died.
PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Comotto - who remain on duty with restrictions in place - are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on April 25.
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Following the incident in June 2022, Sussex Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Mel Palmer, the regional IOPC director for the southeast, said: "Following our investigation, the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] has authorised charges against both officers and criminal proceedings will now take place."
Burgess’s family said they were "shocked and horrified" by his death.
A neighbour at his former home in Battle, East Sussex said: "He was a lovely, sociable man. He and his wife, Ethel, lived here for years and they were a lovely couple.
Police were called to Park Beck care home in St Leonards-on-Sea after receiving reports about an elderly man threatening staff with a knife
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"Ethel got cancer and the last time she went into a hospice I promised her I'd look after her Don."
She said that Burgess was a retired carpenter and had suffered from diabetes which resulted in him having his leg amputated.
"After Ethel died he had his own carers," the neighbour added.
"But after he had his leg amputated he only came back for one night before he had to go into a care home."
