Video After The JumpOn Monday October 4, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana Deputy Chris Guidry responds to a call from an undervover cop of a drug buy.
When Guidry gets to the scene, he sees the man, 28 year old Javon "Slim" Rakestrau, ID'd from the drug buy, walking down the street.
Guidry gets out of his patrol car and asks Javon for I.D.
Javon starts to walk away, saying he would get his identification from inside his home. The Deputy stops him, telling him to put his hands on the hood of the patrol car.
At that point Javon reaches into a right pocket, saying he was going to call the police himself. At the same time he's reaching into a left pocket for something.
Guidry would later say he wasn't sure what Javon was reaching for, so he attempts to take him to the ground.
Javon resists, starts yelling for his mother, while continuing to say he had done nothing wrong. When he breaks away from the officer, he is then tased.
Within seconds of being tased, Javon's breathing becomes labored. An ambulance is called, but Javon died in the hospital.
It turns out he was reaching into his left pocket for weed, probably to hide it from the cop.
An autopsy is underway to determine the exact cause of death.
Meanwhile, Javon's death has caused an outrage in the community. Local residents are calling the polce there killers.
"If you're walking through the neighborhood and the cops see you, they'll pull up, search you and ask questions," one local said. "They want to try to intimidate us."Gerald Hopkins, a friend of Rakestrau, said Guidry could have used better force. He said a stun gun wasn't necessary for the situation.
"They're trained for situations like that," he said. "It was not proper force."Lt. Craig Stansbury didn't see it that way at all.
"The state of Louisiana has a force continuum law, which states that the officer is required and able to go one step above the offender's actions. To resist an officer or resist arrest. And that's exactly what Deputy Guidry was doing." says Stansbury
Check out the video and tell me what you think. Was the cop out of control or just doing his job?
As I see it, this guy was up to no good. He knew he was in the wrong and the use of force was appropriate with the circumstances. If he had nothing to hide, he would have complied and nothing would have been done. He chose to step things up, the Deputy was doing what he was trained to do. All these people that say the Cops "Harrass" them fail to mention that the area this took place in, accounts for 20% of Violent Crimes in the Parish of Lafayette. That is a very high number considering the population. This guy was arrested numerous times for a variety of crimes including Armed Robbery, Felon in possession of a firearm just to name a few. Bystanders say the Deputy could have used different means to subdue the subject however, they again fail to mention that when other means are used, they complain of the same thing. It's easy to fix this problem, act normal and quit trying to play the "Race Card" every time you get caught breaking the law. I guess some of the people that are complaining fail to realize that they are part of the problem, not the solution.
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