Candlelight Vigil VICTOR STEEN PENSACOLA PD banns use of tasers from moving vehicles

Candlelight Vigil VICTOR STEEN PENSACOLA PD banns use of tasers from moving vehicles

Protesters and people who attended a candlelight vigil Friday night say their efforts have led to positive changes at the Pensacola Police Department.

Friday, the department banned the use of tasers from moving vehicles.

The new policy comes almost a week after officer Gerald Ard fired his taser while chasing 17-year-old Victor Steen.

Ard's car ended up hitting and killing the teen.

First on Three... Steen's family and friends gathered to remember him.

Channel Three's Laurie Bernstein takes us to the candlelight vigil.

There were no fancy speeches...only the sounds of their voices joined in prayer.

There were no angry words...only the tears shed for the one they lost.

"It's hard for everybody, everybody, especially when you don't expect anything like this."

"You never knew Victor to get in trouble, that's why it's so shocking to everybody in the family."

Victor Steen's family say they won a small battle, with the police department's decision to change its policy on tasers.

But the bigger question: was enough done to try to save the teen's life in the moments after he was hit by the police cruiser?

"We are frustrated, angry, outraged about that. We felt more could have been done, at least an attempt to save his life."

According to the Pensacola Police Deparment, Officer Ard first called for an ambulance and a supervisor at 1:51 a.m.

Five minutes later, at 1:56, the ambulance arrived.

At 1:58, EMS on the scene pronounced Steen dead, but Steen's body stayed under the car for hours.

"Victor was a human being, not an animal. He was someone precious to us, precious to the world. We felt not enough medical attention was given."

Pensacola police tell us that FDLE and FHP were the ones to make the call to keep Steen under the car.

According to department policy, once a person is pronounced dead, it becomes a crime scene, and nothing can be disturbed.

But for these grieving family members, that policy doesn't bring any comfort in knowing if the right thing was done.

"We miss him so much, we feel he was taken away from us way too early."

The FDLE and the state attorney will decide if Officer Ard will face criminal charges, but he could be facing a civil lawsuit as well. Sources close to the family tell us they will be suing both Officer Ard and the Pensacola Police Department for causing the death of this 17-year-old. Reporting from the police department, Laurie Bernstein, Channel Three News.

The funeral for Victor Steen will be next Saturday, the 17th, at 11 a.m. at Greater Little Rock Baptist Church.

That's at the corner of Cervantes and A Streets in Pensacola.

A march from R Street--near the scene of Steen's death--to the church will precede the services.

Candlelight Vigil VICTOR STEEN PENSACOLA PD banns use of tasers from moving vehicles FUNERAL PROTEST MARCH OFFICER GERALD ARD ALEX JONES PENSACOLA POLICE DEPARTMENT FLORIDA ESCAMBIA COUNTY SHERIFFS BRUTALITY RODNEY KING MURDER TEEN THEN THREATEN TO CONFISCATE CELL PHONE VIDEOS TAZER DONT TAZE ME BRO VICTOR STEEN TAZED HIT DRAGGED COP WATCH PINNED DIED UNDER CRUISER TYRANNY VACATION LEAVE ON PROBATION Greater Little Rock Baptist Church

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[gnockergnutz]

@09rosariogrande< Fuck Oscar Grant, Grant was drunk, high on and in possession of weed and crack, fighting on a train platform well past his required parole curfew. No-one want to talk about the fact that he was on parole for raping and brutalizing the 13 year old daughter of a man who owed Grant a $200 drug debt. FUCK Victor too, he was accidentally run over while fleeing from a construction site he was caught robbing.

[dboy9109]

fuck the police.escambia police are GREEN as FUCK

[09rosariogrande]

You know what man people like you @Chronicz259 really piss me off, cause at what point is it okay for a cop to kill anyone?!?!?! Maybe when lives are at risk, but there wasn't no lives at risk in this situation, or in Oscar Grants! What the fuck is the jail for if it's okay just to kill anyone offending the laws?!?!?! He decided to run from the police on his bike and he deserves to get killed?!?! When people who do get caught for resisting maybe get what, 3 months?!?! Shut your dumb ass up yo

[09rosariogrande]

R.I.P. Victor Steen, and R.I.P. Oscar Grant and god be with those people like Chronicz259

[09rosariogrande]

@Chronicz259 Btw so many times i ran that city at night bored as fuck, it's not against the law dumb ass!!!! and I wasn't doing any kind of shit like the prostitutes and crack heads do on Cervantes, so get your mind right. Just because you are out at night hanging out in such a place like pensacola cause you're so bored doesn't mean you're a fuckin nuisance. You act like you've never done your dirt, this mother fucker is dead, FOR NOTHING, what kind of bitch ass cop tases a kid out of a car?!?!

[09rosariogrande]

@Chronicz259 I'm from pensacola and know soo many fuckin people being locked up for stupid shit there including myself, I mean we all are accountable for our actions and I got 3 months in jail for trespassing without warning, Escambia County makes so much money of the people they house in the county jail. They made 3,300 off me. For going to pine forest high school to get my transcripts so I could go to PJC cause some dumb asses wanted to steal rims and felt threatened by me in my dress clothes.

[Chronicz259]

@nowwithmorekick Listen, if he would've been raised better then he wouldn't have been dead. Why are you even calling me names? Makes no sense but ok. Also the cop never told the kid to run away. I've been scared when police approached me before (even tho I didn't do anything) and I remained respectful and never ran. The Officer just asked me if I saw anything and continued on. No need to give dirty looks when they just here to do a job like everyone else. He shouldn't have ran PERIOD.

[nowwithmorekick]

@Chronicz259 Before you speak you should watch the video when the kid dies.It was the cops fault. What you said does come off pretty racist and i really doubt your black to talk like that. White people smoke weed a lot more then black people yet at black people are arrested up to 8 times more i nthis country even in areas mostly white.Why are you bashing his family when they just lost him. The kid wasn't doing anything to deserve to die you asshole. He was just a kid scared so he ran that was it

[Chronicz259]

@41kush it's really funny because you sound like you've been in trouble with the law yourself. If or you family let's say mom or dad needs 911, who responds? The police, so do yourself and keep you uneducated comments to yourself if you don't have anything nice to say.

[Chronicz259]

@nowwithmorekick How am I raciest if I am black myself? I know good from bad. He shouldn't be out in the street in the first place. Simple, you follow the law and be with positive influences and you won't get killed. So easy. Ask me how many arrests I've had or how many times i've been stopped.. 0 and 0 and Im 25 years old so If i can do it anybody can. Just because mom or dad wasn't there when growing up don't mean shit. People have their own brain so they can think for themselves!