WASHINGTON, April 25, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices released the following News Alert:
According to news reports from the U.K.'s The Daily Telegraph and BBC News, at 3 p.m. on Sunday, West Midlands police reported to an area in Northfield, Birmingham, in response to calls about a man brandishing a knife and threatening to harm himself. As police arrived and approached, Andrew Downes, 28, grabbed a girl who was waiting nearby for a bus and held a 10-inch knife to her throat as he took her hostage.
After refusing repeated requests to drop his knife, police deployed a TASER(r) device to incapacitate the man and were able to rescue the girl who escaped with superficial injuries.
Downes was arrested and still in custody on Monday. He will appear in court next Tuesday and has been charged with attempted wounding, affray, false imprisonment, causing actual bodily harm, having an offensive weapon in public and making threats to kill.
This information was compiled through publicly available media reports and distributed by Dittus Communications, Inc. of Washington, D.C.
TASER International, Inc. and Dittus Communications, Inc. disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy of the media reports that are the sole responsibility of the attributed media source.
For more information on this life saving technology, please visit: www.TASER.com.