Woman with Baton Tasered by Reno Officer; 3 Arrested

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 05-26-2015, 03:01 PM

A video of a downtown Reno fight shows a woman with a collapsible baton being knocked down after an officer used a Taser on her. Police said the action was justifiable.

Lena Conway, 28, Joshua Aguilar, 26, and Taran Williams, 21, were all booked into Washoe County jail on similar charges including carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and resisting an officer.

The fight erupted at about 1 a.m. Sunday just north of the Reno Arch. It involved a group of at least six to eight people – outnumbering the two responding officers, Reno Police Officer Tim Broadway said Tuesday morning.

No one was seriously hurt.

The officers shouted commands, but were ignored, Broadway said.

At least two videos recorded by witnesses were circulating through social media. One showed an officer down on the ground with another man as a woman carrying the baton approached him.

Another officer is seen behind the woman as he's heard shouting commands to her. After his commands are ignored, the officer shocks her with his Taser. The woman then falls backwards onto the sidewalk.

"People want to overreact and blame police for tasing an unarmed woman, but she was clearly armed," Broadway said, referring to the collapsible baton.

"It can pretty much break your skull open and kill you if you're hit on the head with it," he said.

Broadway said the woman was alert and conscious when she hit the pavement.

"Obviously we can't just let people fight in downtown Reno because they place innocent civilians at risk, especially if they are armed with a baton," Broadway said. "The Taser is an electronic device that locks up the muscles, and that's what it did."

"Fights are always common downtown, and any time you add a long weekend to it, that gives people time to drink and head downtown, and they're going to take advantage of that," he said.

"She could have easily been shot because she was carrying a deadly weapon, but officers chose use a Taser," he said.

Anyone involved in a fight need to follow commands by police, Broadway said.

The investigation is still ongoing.