Death after a 33 second electric pistol discharge.
British justice on Tuesday sentenced a police officer to eight in prison for killing former professional footballer Dalian Atkinson, who died in 2016.
This 43-year-old police officer, Benjamin Monk, was convicted last Wednesday of the manslaughter of the former footballer after six weeks of trial at the Birmingham court (central England).
Dalian Atkinson, who notably played at Aston Villa in the 1990s, died in August 2016 at the age of 48 after receiving several electric pulse pistol shocks in Telford, and two kicks to the head, in following an incident near his father's home.
The policeman says he got scared
The policeman claimed he got scared as Atkinson was apparently in the throes of a bout of dementia, made death threats and smashed a glass door near the house where he spent his childhood in Telford, about forty kilometers from Birmingham.
During the trial, the representative of the prosecution, Alexandra Healy, considered that the course of events showed that the police officer "was not acting in self-defense".
He “continued to pull the trigger for more than six times the recommended five-second phase,” she said.
The former black athlete, who suffered from severe kidney problems, was also kicked twice to the forehead hard enough to leave the imprint of the laces, she said.
The police officer said Dalian Atkinson was trying to get up when he kicked him in the shoulder in self-defense and as a last resort after running out of Taser cartridges.
Benjamin Monk is the first serving police officer convicted of murder or manslaughter since 1986, according to the NGO INQUEST.
