DETROIT (AP) — A prosecutor has told jurors that a Michigan state trooper used unreasonable force when he fired a Taser at a Detroit teenager who then crashed an all-terrain vehicle and died.
Trial opened Tuesday for Mark Bessner, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Damon Grimes. Bessner fired his Taser from a moving patrol car, striking the teen twice before the crash in August 2017.
Assistant prosecutor Matthew Penney says Grimes was breaking the law by driving the ATV on a city street. But he says Grimes was a risk to himself, not others.
Defense attorney Richard Convertino told jurors that Bessner believed the teen had a weapon. He wasn’t armed. Convertino says the scene was tense.
Bessner quit the state police after the incident.
