WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 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 Times-Picayune, a New Orleans man was arrested Tuesday night after attempting to commit suicide and begging officers to shoot him to death. According to James Arey, commander of the police negotiations team, John McCusker, a Times-Picayune photographer, set out to kill himself after becoming depressed about not being able to financially rebuild his Katrina-devastated home. McCusker was spotted driving erratically near Napoleon Avenue and Baronne Street just before 7:30 p.m. and struck several parked vehicles before finally complying with officers' requests to pull over. An officer then approached McCusker's car with a gun and asked him to step out of the vehicle while a second officer posted behind the car. McCusker refused and instead rolled down the window and asked repeatedly to be killed before putting the car in reverse, pinning the second officer between McCusker's vehicle and the patrol car. Two shots were fired but missed the tires of McCusker's car as he sped off.

Police followed McCusker up St. Charles Avenue as he intentionally hit every sign advertising construction. On Jefferson Avenue near the lake side of St. Charles, McCusker finally came to a stop and police were able to pull him from his vehicle. A TASER(r) device was used to subdue McCusker who resisted being placed in handcuffs and continued to curse and plead with officers to kill him.

McCusker is being held for psychiatric observation. Arey gave great credit to the officers on the scene for apprehending McCusker alive by deploying a TASER(r) device.

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.

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