James Borden

How they died

Less-than-lethal force

James Borden died after being tasered 11 times by police despite being unarmed. Borden was arrested for violation of probation. He was incoherent when he was picked up, and police took him into custody even though EMS personnel advised against it. He was tasered for being uncooperative while at the jail. He suffered a heart attack and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Jailer David Shaw pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal recklessness and received a year-and-a-half suspended sentence. Media reports don't state categorically whether he was booked, so this incident may be outside of FatalEncounters dataset, which does not include individuals after they've been booked into the jail or prison system.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that James Borden, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources