ATASCOSA COUNTY, Texas – Family members of a man who died at a Jourdanton hospital said he died after an Atascosa County sheriff's deputy used a taser on him.
The incident was reported around 3:30 a.m. Monday in Pleasanton.
The family of 54-year-old Macario Cisneros Garcia tells KSAT there was a confrontation between their relative and the deputy in the front yard of a home.
The family says the deputy used his taser twice on Garcia during the confrontation.
"I witnessed a sheriff's deputy tase my brother once. He was flopping like a fish and he thought my brother was being combative, which she wasn't," said Felipe Cisneros Garcia.
He said the deputy then used the taser a second time before he tried to explain to the deputy that his brother had congestive heart failure.
"It was excessive force. It was unnecessary for them to have done that to my brother," said Garcia.
Garcia was transported to a South Texas Regional Medical Center in Jourdanton and pronounced dead at 5:52 a.m.
"There was no reason for them to have done that. Tased him twice? His heart stops," said Janie Pena, Garcia's sister. "They screwed up. The department screwed up."
Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward released a statement on the fatal incident saying it resulted from an attempted traffic stop in which Garcia failed to comply.
The statement did not say why a deputy tried to pull over Garcia.
Soward will not comment until the Texas Rangers complete their own investigation, read the statement.
The deputy who deployed the taser was identified in the statement as D. Kaufman.
The released reads, in part, "The deputy made contact with the driver who refused to comply with the officer's commands. The subject placed his hand in his pocket and swung at the deputy who deployed the taser."
Kaufman handcuffed Garcia and placed him in the back of a patrol car for evading arrest and resisting arrest.
Garcia collapsed a few moments later.
According to the Atascosa County Sheriff's Office, Garcia had a lengthy arrest record which includes charges of assault on a public servant, resisting arrest and aggravated rape of a child.