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Man Dies Two Weeks After Being Tased By Escambia Deputies
December 18, 2014
A man tased multiple times by Escambia County deputies has died.
About 6 a.m. on December 1, 28-year old Cody Robert Healey was on the campus of Sherwood Elementary School, exposing himself while wearing only a t-shirt. When deputies arrived, Healey reportedly became very aggressive and refused to follow multiple orders from the deputies. He was reportedly banging on vehicle hoods, turning flips and throwing himself into trees.
When a deputy attempted to handcuff Healey, he reportedly pulled away, elbowed the deputy and struck him multiple times. When a second deputy arrived, Healey became more aggressive and struck him in the chest and neck.
When Healey continued to ignore commands from the deputies, he was tased three different times. But he continued to fight deputies and was tased two more times, allowing deputies to take him into custody.
Healey then stopped breathing, and the deputies began CPR. Healey was transported to Baptist Hospital where he died two weeks later.
Investigators reported find “Kick Brains”, a brand of synthetic spice drugs, in Healey’s home.
Healey’s parents have spoken out, accusing the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office of their son’s wrongful death. They also said their son did not use spice.
Sheriff David Morgan said his deputies did not break any policies, and he said the toxicology report, expected to take several weeks, will tell the true story. According to court records, Healey has previously been charged with resisting arrest.
Comments
36 Responses to “Man Dies Two Weeks After Being Tased By Escambia Deputies”
what happened to respecting police officers. Many young men would be alive today if they simply held out their hands and were handcuffed. Respect it’s a lost art today. Parents teach your children respect. We do have bad apples for cops but they’re few and far between that can be dealt with later loss of life cannot be.
Condemned if you tase
Condemned if you don’t tase.
(my tablet meant well, so I didn’t check closely enough)
Condemned if you tase
Condemned if you don’t tease.
Thinking,
This man was on school property exposing himself and acting crazy. Yes, obviously he had mental issues. Who in their right mind would act that way. However, your statement 1. Bring in mental health professionals….to the scene of a crime where children are in danger? I think not. One has to be transported to the local jail or to a hospital in order for psych to be recommended and only another physician can do so. You honestly think SIX (you did say SIX) should have been called upon to handle this. I don’t think so. 2. “Cops are not qualified to handle crazy people.”….actually, they are. Why do you think they are dispatched.
Mental health is something that should be addressed-in the right time and place. At the scene of a crime taking place is not the place. Where children’s lives and protection are a stake is not the place. Health insurance covers mental health. One has to seek it out if they are not placed under the Baker Act, first. Too many plead ‘temporary insanity” as a cop out (no pun intended), so to say that this is only a mental health issue is ridiculous. No one should have lost their life over this incident, but no one knows if it was the taser or the fact he was high on spice and God knows what else that killed him. His only family said he wasn’t in a good place.
Whatever happened to calling the men with the white jackets, as my grandmother used to say. Police saw that he had no weapons and acting strangely. Time for them to step back and call psychiatric services. Six guys with a straight jacket could have subdued him put a jacket on him strapped him down and taken him to a psychiatric facility where he could have gotten help and then dealt with the legal consequences of his actions. He’d still be alive. The state of psychiatric care in this country is terrible. Cops are not qualified to handle crazy people. They should have resources to call in people who are. We need to address mental health care in this country. We need to be able to encourage a societal culture that approves of people seeking help for mental health issues. We wouldn’t have such a high rate of multiple varieties of crime that we see today. We should be ashamed that this young man needed help and we did nothing. Now he’s dead. Not the cops fault it’s our fault.
What a shame and prayers to the family. I agree with some of the comments here. There had to be some other underlying medical problem or health issue. People don’t die from tasing and if they did, it would probably be on contact….not 2 weeks later. Hopefully the autopsy will clear everything up as to exactly what happened.
Cody wad a great kid worked with him for a while very respectful and hard working. He has gone through some very hard times in his life.if I know anything about him it’s that he loved his daughter more than anything. I’m completely saddened that he won’t be there for her especially for the holiday seasons. People need to see the bigger picture. A life was taken and more than anything a father was taken from a little girl that now will have to grow up with out him…. as for the drug use he was clean. He pretty much kept to himself. It’s such a shame he had leave this world so soon.
Desiree Hamm, I really do hate it for the lil girl, BUT, they found spice in his residence, so shut your trap, you sound as bad as his parents, people get help, you don’t show yourself to kids, I’d hate to see what he done to his lil girl & you don’t go off on law enforcement, thanks to people like you, is the reason, half these people don’t get help.
For one none of y’all was there so don’t judge and for two Cody does not do drugs I know him and for three he was on his own property and if y’all must know two summers ago he was knocked out into a fire and left to die he has ptsd so he was probably having a flash back and thought he was on fire. …. so if u don’t know him or know what happen keep your trap shut. … how would u feel if this was u and people said the stuff y’all are saying about u. .. only God can judge and thanks to these sorry police officers a little girl list her father
If you have some free time look at his history of arrests. Check just the last name also.
chrissygatorfan Have you ever seen anybody get tased? They don’t fall to the ground face first gracefully
That “bump”, as several have referred to, is an unexcavated pimple due to resisting lawful orders and directions.
Sorry the young man died, but his demise is the result of a proclivity to do certain illegal activities.
Maybe his family could set an example by speaking to youth and others about the pain and suffering caused by this tragedy to his family.
Chrissygatorfan on December 18th, 2014 8:57 am wrote: —What about that lump on his head? Or is an old mugshot?
The jail log shows two old booking photos. One in street clothes dated 5/28/10 and one in a jail uniform dated 9/9/12. The picture being shown is from his arrest on 9/9/12. However, both have him with a bump on the left side of his head. And guess what, both arrest have him charged with resisting arrest. Not surprised he resisted in the latest attempt to arrest him.
as a parent who has experience with a child on K2- I totally agree with what the officers did to protect themselves. Spice “K2″ whatever you want to call it, is a horror story. To many lives are lost and ruined due to this horrid drug.
If we back up a bit I would feel the same if my child was being exposed by someone who was acting strange and running around in a crazy state of mind. Yes, I would call the authorities to help defuse and contain the situation. For the protection of my own child and for the crazy acting person too. I mean, what in the world?
I guess some people think the police or ECSO should not use a taser gun or a pellet gun or a bean bag gun???? Really??? you call for support and restraint of the messed-up situation, yet you want to restrict the power by which the authorities can get the situation under control. Do they use SILLY STRING? Good grief!!
I find it almost amusing that we as the public want protection from the law when we see a situation that could be harmful. Then, some of us cry foul by law enforcement or want to blame law enforcement due to the ending results. I admit, there are some cops that make bad decisions…but considering this particular persons behavior and the fact that being tased didn’t stop him – HIS BEHAVIOR is just wrong. Whether it was drug induced or not. (Of course, his parents don’t want to think their child could have been under the influence or didn’t use drugs…No parent wants to think that. But ask why would a normal, non-influenced person act this way in public. The truth will be determined after the toxicology results are made known.)
So, this is where I say step back. It is a series of choices that brings a person to his or her current place in life. And usually in case such as these, they don’t make good decisions. ONE decision of which was his choice of being under the influence in the first place. HE is responsible for the chain of events that ended his own life.
I feel sad for his parents. No parent should have to feel the pain of losing a child.
How in this world do we expect the law not to handle a person on spice… just glad the criminal here wasn’t 300 lbs,6′3″. To all LEOs,When a criminal is being a criminal and he dies at your feet,I salute you for doing the service you do
In no way does the headline of this article infer that anyone was trying to “throw LEO under the bus”…
His friends/family have all agreed that this doesn’t sound like him, that he was a veteran, a father, and an all around good person. I tend to agree. However, that doesn’t mean he didn’t do exactly what the article describes. Drugs, whether you want to believe he was on them or not, make people act differently. I don’t think he’s the “pedo” people are making him out to be (re: WEAR FB comments) but I do believe he was naked, in front of an elementary school campus. I think he wasn’t in his right mind, was naked, acting erratically, and when confronted by police became combative. They don’t really have a choice but to do something to subdue the combative person. When one tase doesn’t work, they try it again. and again. As many as it takes.
My heart goes out to his family and friends, I cant imagine how difficult this must be to process, especially since his actions that morning were highly irregular. But the blame cant be placed on the police officers for Cody’s poor choices. Their intention was not to kill him – a gun would have been much more effective, if that was their goal.
everyone, smoke real weed. the molecules in spice are so far from the original molecules that they are affecting people in very bad ways. this guy may have been crazy also. unintended consequence of the war on drugs.
What about that lump on his head? Or is an old mugshot?
Let’s plan a protest, SO he exposed himself to kids, SO he fought against LEO, did he deserve being arrested? … A little satire!!!! God rest his soul.
@Just Wondering- “I would think you were trying to throw LEO under the bus.” William has always been fair in his reporting of law enforcement. He has always been polite and courteous working with us on scenes. I assure you that he is not throwing us under the bus.
>>>Please tell me why the headline says nothing about exposing himself or attacking deputies.
Headlines have limited space.
Your situation in life (or death) is the cumulitive results of the decisions you make. Don’t do dope. Don’t resist the authorities. Don’t get tased or shot. Simple
@ Night
“Or unless you have been tased multiple times in a row. That will do it check your facts before you post.”
Your right after the taser didn’t work the first time they should have stopped and just shot him.
HE WAS AT A SCHOOL WITH ONLY A TSHIRT EXPOSING HIMSELF AND ACTING LIKE A MAD MAN.
We do have some limited cases in this country of police abuse of power,,, this is not one of them.
We have a criminal problem in the us, we need to stop letting these criminals ride roughshod over us.
There should be no such thing as a “Career Criminal” .
http://www.escambiaclerk.com/xml/xml_searchbm.asp?ulname=Healey&ufname=Cody&ucasetype2=&ucase=&ucit=&ufromdate=&daterange=0&ucasetype=&uagencynbr=&uagencytype=
Before I even finished reading the article, I was wondering about synthetic marijuana. I’m no medical examiner but more than likely this man caused his own death when he chose to take that horrible drug!
Some parents just choose to be ignorant, no not my kid, he’s a good boy, he would never take that, much less harm lil kids @ an elementary, sorry folks, you need your head examined. These parents are just as dangerous as their son was, they’re the type to cover for & make excuses for their son & accuse the victim instead, I know people like that & they do not get near my kids alone, preferably me not even being in an area that they’re in.
How ridiculous to blame the police who were puttng themselves at risk of being killed by this drug crazed maniac to protect the children. The appletree defending their apple.
Please tell me why the headline says nothing about exposing himself or attacking deputies. Without reading the article, I would think you were trying to throw LEO under the bus. I think they should be commended for the way they tried to handle this situation at an elementary school!!
Thank you officers for keeping the children safe. My hats off to anyone who goes to work and risk their lives every day for a next to nothing salary. As tragic as it is, Mr. Healey is responsible for his own death, not the ones protecting young kids from a naked man.
We reap what we sow, every single time.
Night on December 18th, 2014 3:49 am , apparently Healey needed to be tased a mulitude of times. Spice is, basically Angel dust on crack,and if it is cranked up with other additives, you DON’T know what it is going to do to a person on it or even what it is going to make a person do to others.
You can never besure that your child didn’t try something and it just turned out really BAD. Till the autopsy is complete, all we do know is the deputies had to protect themselves. (After all when they finish a work day they want to go home!)
Multiple tasing(which I know happens with non compliant drug users or combative people) is still not likely to cause death unless there is an underlying condition like a heart problem. As a paramedic I have worked many calls in which a noncompliant or combative person on spice was tased or tased a few times and have never had a patient die.Any affects of the tasing would be immediate not 2 weeks later. My.point is the young man’s death is sad but we can’t just blame police procedure just because you want to. Many people get tased and never have an issue. It’ll be interesting to see what the autopsy shows.
I’m sorry this young man was troubled and lost his life. But let’s stop faulting law enforcement. The deputies were called in the first place to “protect” the children. They were doing exactly what they were called on to do.
When an officer of any kind pulls up behind me, I’m getting nervous, checking my speed, etc. to make sure I’M not doing something wrong; I don’t automatically look at him as being the BAD guy. And when I need help, like everyone else, I will be calling 911.
Or unless you have been tased multiple times in a row. That will do it check your facts before you post.
There is also a possibility of his heart being weakened or strained due to the spice, if the toxicology report confirms the use of spice. My condolences to the young man’s family.
Condolenses to his family but he’s lucky they only tased him. Correct me if I’m wrong but attacking a deputy is grounds for deadly force. Dying as a result of tasing is rare unless you have an underlying cardiac issue in which in this case the deputies wouldn’t have known about and the perp probably didn’t either.