WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- TASER International, Inc. (Nasdaq:TASR), a market leader in advanced electronic control devices released the following News Alert:
According to new reports from the Appeal-Democrat out of Yuba City, California, a 26-year-old man who had been arrested and released earlier in the day on suspicion of public drug intoxication, was taken into police custody again Sunday afternoon after an attempted carjacking. Justin Ray Atkinson of Yuba City flagged down a pickup truck and tried to force his way into the vehicle outside the Harter Road Wal-Mart around 3:25 p.m. Atkinson claimed to have a weapon and was reaching into his jacket and pants when the driver of the truck deployed his TASER X26C electronic control device. The TASER X26C is the citizen model of the TASER X26, the device used by over 9,800 law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Local police, Yuba City firefighters and a Bi-County Ambulance crew immediately responded to the scene and took Atkinson to the Sutter County Jail on suspicion of carjacking. Officers later learned that Atkinson had approached a local high school fundraising booth outside of the Wal-Mart and was said to have been acting strangely and speaking incoherently.
TASER International has sold over 115,000 TASER devices for private use since the company was founded in 1993. The X26C has been available for purchase since September 2004. Weighing only 7 ounces and just slightly larger than a cell phone, the X26C allows users to incapacitate an attacking person from up to 15 feet away for 10 to 30 seconds. The retail sale price of the unit is $999.
Potential purchasers must complete a thorough background and address verification check. TASER International has also incorporated an Anti-Felon Identification (AFID) system which disperses 20-30 coded tags every time a device is used to aid in registration, verification and tracking to prevent the misuse of the devices.
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.
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