LOS ANGELES — Hoping to calm the furor created when UCLA campus police used a Taser to subdue a student studying in the university's Powell Library, the university's acting chancellor on Friday announced that a veteran Los Angeles law-enforcement watchdog would lead an independent investigation of the incident.
Norman Abrams said he ordered the probe after the university received numerous calls and e-mails since the Tuesday night arrest from parents and alumni raising concerns about the officers' actions, which were broadcast around the world on TV news and the YouTube Web site.
"I want to assure them that the UCLA campus is a safe environment. Student safety and treatment are of paramount concern at UCLA," he said. "We plan to move ahead promptly with a complete and unbiased review."
Abrams appointed Merrick Bobb, who was a staff attorney for the Christopher Commission, which was formed to examine allegations of excessive force in the Los Angeles Police Department following the Rodney King beating. Abrams said Bobb has a proven track record looking into allegations of police misconduct.
One of the issues Bobb's investigation will examine is whether the officers complied with the university police rules for using Tasers.
The move came hours after more than 200 students marched to the UCLA police station calling for an independent investigation into the Taser incident, as well as the suspension of the officers involved.
Wearing signs reading "I'm a student, don't Taser me" and chanting "Tasers out of UC," the protesters said it was an inherent conflict of interest for university police to handle the investigation of their own officers.
"What was done was unnecessary," said Rahmatullah Akbar, a senior majoring in psychology. "We as students don't deserve to be Tasered."
The incident occurred late Tuesday night in a library filled with students studying for midterm examinations.
According to the university, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a 23-year-old senior, was asked for his ID as part of a routine nightly procedure to make sure that everyone using the library after 11 p.m. is a student or otherwise authorized to be there. Campus officials have said the long-standing policy was adopted to ensure students' safety.
Authorities said that Tabatabainejad refused repeated requests by community service officers and regular campus police to provide identification or to leave. University Police Chief Karl Ross said the officers decided to use the Taser to incapacitate Tabatabainejad only after the student urged other library patrons to join his resistance.
Mavrick Goodrich, a chemical engineering major who observed the incident, said Tabatabainejad shouted, "Am I the only martyr?"
Some witnesses disputed that account, saying that when campus police arrived, Tabatabainejad had begun to walk toward the door.
Tabatabainejad's attorney, Stephen Yagman, said his client refused to show his ID because he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance. Tabatabainejad is of Iranian descent but is a U.S.-born resident of Los Angeles.
The student was shocked five times with the Taser, Yagman said.
Another student used a cell phone camera to record portions of the incident, in which Tabatabainejad can be heard screaming in pain when the Taser shocks are administered.
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Rules of engagement
UCLA campus police are allowed to use a Taser on a passive resister as a pain-compliance technique, Assistant Chief Jeff Young said in an interview Friday with the Los Angeles Times.
Under UCLA policy, he said, the officer can use the weapon after considering the potential injury to officers and the individual as well as level of resistance and need for prompt resolution.
Young described Mostafa Tabatabainejad, the student who was shocked with a Taser on Tuesday night, as a "passive resister" who refused to cooperate with officers. But Young acknowledged the student didn't actively resist the officers.