LEON COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - A Leon County correctional officer was arrested and fired after he tased a restrained inmate.
Deputies said that Corrections Sergeant Derrick Adams was arrested for battery coming from a use of force incident inside the Leon County Jail.
On Monday, they said that an inmate in the jail was acting irrationally. To prevent the inmate from hurting himself, officers escorted the inmate to be secured in a restraint chair.
In the process, the inmate spit on Adams' face. Deputies said that Adams grabbed the inmate by his shirt and pushed him against a wall saying, "you got a problem?"
The inmate was held there until he was secured in the chair.
Adams was given a spit mask to put on the inmate, but he told other officers that he wasn't going to use it. Instead, Adams said that if the inmate spit again, he'd just tase him.
While the nurse was checking the chair restraints, the inmate spit on the nurse.
Instead of following protocol and putting the spit mask on the inmate, Adams pulled out his taser and aimed it at the inmate. Deputies said he told the fully restrained inmate to "do it again" several times.
When the inmate spat in his direction, Adams tased him in the chest. The spit mask was then put on the inmate.
“The care and custody of inmates, in the Leon County Jail, is a primary responsibility of this office. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office takes this charge seriously and does this on a daily basis," said Sheriff Walt McNeil. "When an incident like this happens it tarnishes the great work these men and women do every day. However, this type of behavior will not be tolerated from our employees.”
Adams had been an employee with the Leon County Sheriff's Office since 2004.
