Florida woman, Ramona Braswell, arrested after using taser on 3-year-old nephew
A Florida woman was arrested this weekend after using a Taser on 3-year-old toddler’s left arm, causing visible injuries. She was laughing when the mother entered the room.
Ramona Braswell, 39, of St. Petersburg Florida, used a Taser on the boy and police say she was laughing, holding the device and still “activating it on and off” when the mom entered the room.
The boy, “Rodney,” said his aunt shocked him on the arm and that it hurt. Braswell denied touching the child with the Taser, but marks left on his left arm confirmed that contact had been made with his skin, police said.
“It seems clear to the officer that she actually did apply the charge to the child,” says Mike Puetz, police department spokesman.
Braswell continued to deny shocking the child, when questioned, officers said. Later she said she was activating the Taser near the boy and at one point placed the Taser handle on his arm, but not the electrodes. She said the Taser belonged to a friend and she was just “playing” with the device.
“Everybody knows that I would never hurt a child,” says Braswell, according to the WTSP report. She insists she had just been playing around with the stun gun and her nephew, Rodney VanHorn. She claims that she never actually touched the boy with the weapon, she thinks he just got scared and started crying.
“That was a mistake, yeah, but I’d never take and touch a child with it, no,” says Braswell.
“My baby started crying, and I just wanted to know what was wrong,” says Karen Braswell on the 911 call. The operator asks, “OK, who tased him?” “My sister,” Karen Braswell replied.
Now Karen Braswell had a tearful apology for her sister, “I’m sorry, and I hope I can fix all of this,” says Karen Braswell.
Officers took Braswell into custody charging her with one count of felony child abuse. Her bond was set at $5,000.
