Pierre police chief defends stun gun use on 8 year old girl

The Pierre, SD, police chief has spent nearly a week defending the use of a stun gun on an 8-year-old girl who threatened to harm herself. The parents of the child, who was with a babysitter when the incident occurred Friday, say they want the officer disciplined for using excessive force, the Pierre Argus Leader reported. Police Chief Bob Grandpre said three officers responded to a report of a suicidal 8-year-old girl who had stabbed herself in the leg. When the officers arrived, the girl was holding a 4 ½-inch knife to her chest and refused to drop it. One officer stepped toward the child but stopped when she turned the knife toward him, Grandpre said. "She immediately put the knife back at her chest," the chief said, and the officer deployed his stun gun. Emergency medical personnel arrived and checked the child, who was taken to a hospital and placed on a 24-hour hold, he said. The child's leg was uninjured. Grandpre said the incident was under review, but the officer remained on the job, the Argus Leader reported Tuesday. The girl wasn't seriously injured, but "she was in pain the whole night," her mother, Dawn Stenstrom, said. Stenstrom described the knife as "a little paring knife," and said she's never known her daughter to become so uncontrollable that physical restraint was needed. Her father said the child was only "acted out. ... Her acting out got her tased."