In a story first reported by 5NEWS, three Benton County jailers were fired last month after using pepper spray on an inmate wearing a body restraint, Sheriff Kelley Cradduck said Monday.
He said the jailers were fired for using excessive force.
A jail incident report states that deputies were trying to restrain an inmate, Shannon Taylor, who had been placed into a detox cell in the Benton County Jail. Taylor repeatedly had been striking the cell door, despite deputies asking him to stop, the report states.
A sergeant, a deputy and a corporal entered the cell and wrestled Taylor to the ground, shocking him with a Taser stun gun as he continued to struggle, according to the jail incident report. Sgt. Shawn Henning, Deputy Michael Finnegan and Corporal Gale Roland were eventually able to place Taylor in a restraint chair.
The inmate's legs were not restrained, and he kept kicking and thrashing around with his legs, according to witnesses. Roland used pepper spray on Taylor, who stopped resisting long enough for jailers to restrain them in the chair, Finnegan states in the incident report.