{"id":13325,"date":"2020-06-23T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/queens-man-wielding-samurai-sword-dies-after-being-tased-by-cops\/"},"modified":"2020-06-23T07:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T04:01:00","slug":"queens-man-wielding-samurai-sword-dies-after-being-tased-by-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/queens-man-wielding-samurai-sword-dies-after-being-tased-by-cops\/","title":{"rendered":"#Queens man wielding samurai sword dies after being tased by cops"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Queens man wielding samurai sword dies after being tased by cops<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n A man who had been wielding a samurai sword died Sunday night after he was tased by police officers at his Queens home, the NYPD said.<\/p>\n

Police were called to the home of 30-year-old George Zapantis on 150th Street in Whitestone around 9:45 p.m., over reports of a man with a firearm there, an NYPD spokesperson said Monday night.<\/p>\n

The officers found Zapantis in the basement, holding a samurai sword, and told him to drop it, cops said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe app<\/a>roached the officers with the sword, they deployed their tasers,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cHe was subsequently subdued.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he was being arrested, Zapantis appeared to go into cardiac arrest, cops said. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital and pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

The family is now demanding answers \u2014 their attorney, George Vomvolakis, tells The Post he believes police used excessive force during the encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it is early in our investigation, it appears that we may have another incident of excessive force by police officers who repeatedly shot Mr. Zapantis with a Taser, which ultimately caused his death,\u201d Vomvolakis said Monday night.<\/p>\n

Zapantis, who had mental health issues, may have panicked and resisted arrest, but was unarmed, according to the lawyer, who cited witness accounts, including one captured on video.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time that he was tased they had him under control and he had his hands behind his back,\u201d Vomvolakis said. \u201c<\/span>They were trying to handcuff him. There was no sword in his hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three short cell phone clips shown to The Post by the family\u2019s lawyer show Zapantis at different points in the struggle, which took place under a red metal awning in a narrow alleyway on the side of his house.<\/p>\n

The clips are shot from above, and in each, Zapantis is closely surrounded by one female and four male uniformed cops. <\/p>\n

He appears to resist being handcuffed; at some points it looks like he is leaning against a metal column that supports the awning, and gripping it from from behind.<\/p>\n

At no point does he verbally or physically threaten the officers or appear to have anything in his hands. <\/p>\n

And the officers say nothing about a weapon as one pulls on the back of Zapantis\u2019 sleeveless T-shirt and several of them angrily shout at him to cooperate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your hands behind your back!\u201d two officers \u2014 first a male voice, and then a female voice \u2014 shout repeatedly in the first clip, which lasts seven seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut your hands behind your back and stop\u2014 understand me?\u201d one of the male cops shouts.<\/p>\n

The second clip is 10 second long, and the voices of the officers surrounding Zapantis are louder and angrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet down! Get down!\u201d several shout. One taps him on the shoulder as another says, \u201cYou\u2019re gonna get tasered again if you don\u2019t get down.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHit him AGAIN!\u201d one cop says, impatience rising in his voice. The sound and flash of a taser is seen.<\/p>\n

The third clip, also only 10 seconds long, starts with another static Taser blast. <\/p>\n

As one cop shouts, \u201cDown on the ground!\u201d Zapantis begins collapsing; he moans, \u201cOh, f\u2014!\u201d as the sparks strike his torso. <\/p>\n

\u201cPut your hands behind your back!\u201d one cop repeats three times.<\/p>\n

Although Zapantis\u2019 next-door neighbor described him as \u201ca little weird,\u201d he also said the man was \u201cnice\u201d and a \u201cpolite\u201d person who would shovel their snow without ever asking for a cent.<\/p>\n

But he had gone through bouts of unusual behavior including going \u201cto the backyard and sometimes howling like an owl,\u201d said the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

Recently, he\u2019d taken to wearing tuxedos and suits and had gotten a new car, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would say hi sometimes, sometimes he wouldn\u2019t say hi. He wasn\u2019t mentally OK,\u201d she said in Spanish, with her niece translating.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was nice though,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen he would say hi, he would be polite.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD said its Force Investigation Division is looking into the incident.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Joe Marino<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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“#Queens man wielding samurai sword dies after being tased by cops” A man who had been wielding a samurai sword died Sunday night after he was tased by police officers at his Queens home, the NYPD said. Police were called to the home of 30-year-old George Zapantis on 150th Street in Whitestone around 9:45 p.m.,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26155],"class_list":["post-13325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-queens-man-wielding-samurai-sword-dies-after-being-tased-by-cops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}