The disturbing body cam footage showed Idaho Springs Police Department's Nicholas Hanning, who has since been fired, deploying his Taser before putting a sword next to clark and taking a photo.
Why did 75-year-old Michael Clark get Tasered by Colorado police just moments after he answered his door? That’s the question his family is now asking after Clark suffered heart complications and a stroke 36 hours after the incident, his lawyer Sarah Schielke told Inside Edition.
“What they took from me that day, I can’t put into words. I’m going to do whatever it takes with what little time I have left to stop this from happening to anyone else ever again,” Clark said in a statement through his lawyer.
The incident on May 30 started with a squabble between neighbors at an apartment building.
A woman had claimed her neighbor next door punched her after complaining to her about noise.
Body cam footage from the day showed officers from the Idaho Springs Police Department knocking on a door without announcing themselves as police, which Clark then answered while wearing nothing but his boxers and holding a sawtooth sword.
An officer now identified as Nicholas Hanning reacted quickly, demanding he put the sword down. After Clark is seen in the body cam footage placing the sword on a bookshelf, he was ordered to get on the ground, which Clark responded forcefully, “No.”
Clark begins talking about the noise complaint, and suddenly Hanning deploys his Taser.
Body cam footage showed Hanning tell Officer Ellie Summers to “put [her] gun away,” and another officer announcing that Clark was “probably unconscious” following the incident. Clark appeared to be out cold as officers dragged him into the hallway.
Later in the footage, an officer could be heard reporting, “Taser deployed. Party came out with a machete.”
Clark is placed in handcuffs, then stirs awake, the footage showed.
Then in a stunning turn of events, the body cam footage showed Hanning entering Clark’s apartment, grabbing the sword, then dropping it near Clark. The body cam footage also included the sound of the sword hitting the floor.
Then, Hanning appeared to take a photograph of the scene with a cell phone.
“Once he’s unconscious, the police step in to make the scene look like something that warranted him being tasered,” his lawyer Schielke said.
Hanning was fired from the Idaho Springs Police Department on July 13 and has been charged with third-degree assault. Summers is still employed by the police department.
“What the world will see in these videos is not me at my worst, but a police department at their worst,” Clark said in the statement. “I am a patriot. I love my country. There are a number of good people out there… good police officers. These are not them. People like this should not be police.”
Clark has not been charged with any crime, according to reports.
