The ACLU of Northern California has filed a second public records act request with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department for details on the Taser shooting of a 38-year-old Sacramento man as he tried to take his life on July 2. The case, which has not been reported in the news media, was brought to our attention by the victim’s sister, who said she learned the following information from an internal affairs detective with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the county coroner:

On the night of July 2, Tommy Valentine Gutierrez entered the U.S.gas station convenience store on El Camino Avenue in Sacramento and told the clerk he was being followed. Gutierrez was clearly agitated and locked himself in the restroom. When the clerk saw blood leaking under the door, he called 911. Sheriff’s deputies arrived and kicked open the restroom door.

Gutierrez, who had cut both his wrists, was slumped in a pool of blood. As a deputy approached him, Gutierrez crawled towards him and made as if to bite his shoe. The deputy shot him with a Taser gun, and when only one prong stuck, shot again. Gutierrez collapsed and died on the way to Davis Medical Center, according to reports made to Gutierrez’ sister, Cindy Ingland.

“We would like to know why a man crawling on his hands and knees, with severe injuries, was hit by a Taser gun, instead of the officer taking two steps back and requesting medical personnel to assist him,” said Ingland, a paralegal in Sacramento.

“Tommy Gutierrez is not just another statistic in a string of recent Taser gun incidents involving police in our community. He was a father, a son, a brother and, most importantly, a human being who was denied his right to medical care,” Ingland said.

Ingland and her family are seeking police reports and other information that will shed more light on the circumstances surrounding Gutierrez' death.

“While we do not know much about the details surrounding this incident or the effect of the Taser in this case, we are very concerned about the growing number of deaths following Taser use,” said Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director of the ACLU of Northern California. “We urge the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department to immediately release all available information to Mr. Gutierrez’ family.”

Gutierrez, a native of Stockton who graduated from that city’s Stagg High School, is the fifth northern California man in the past six weeks to die after being jolted by a Taser. The ACLU-NC has formally asked police for details on the following fatalities:

• In Sacramento on Aug. 4, Dwayne Zachary, 44, died after he was shot several times with a Taser gun during an altercation with sheriff’s deputies.

• In Fremont on Aug. 3, Eric Mahoney of Alameda, 33, died five days after he was shot numerous times with a Taser as he attempted to climb a wall to escape police.

• In San Jose on Aug. 1, Brian Patrick O’Neil, 33, died after police doused him with pepper spray, hit him with a baton and jolted him with a Taser gun during an altercation.

• And in Santa Rosa on July 16, Carlos Casillas Fernandez, 31, died after he was shocked repeatedly with Taser guns during a struggle with police.

Though each public records act request is tailored to the individual case, all five seek similar information, including police reports; dispatch tapes and printouts; autopsy or medical examiner reports; police statements made to the news media; and all communications sent to sent to or received from Taser International, which manufactures and sells stun guns.