UK police Tasered black man they mistook for robber - he was their race-relations adviser

The British police watchdog has launched an investigation after officers Tasered a race-relations adviser who has worked to improve links between the force and the black community in Bristol.

Judah Adunbi, 63, was Tasered by police outside his home in the city on January 14 when officers mistook him for a wanted man.

Video footage recorded by a neighbour shows police scuffling with Adunbi as he tries to get though the gate of his home in the Easton area. He falls to the ground after a Taser is discharged. Adunbi said later he thought he was going to die.

Adunbi has sat on Bristol’s independent advisory group, which is designed to forge links between the police and the community, and has also worked with the Crown Prosecution Service’s local community involvement panel.

Avon and Somerset police voluntarily referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). It said the incident was also captured on the officers’ body cameras.

The neighbour’s video shows two police officers speaking to Adunbi on the street. He can be heard refusing to give them his name. “I’ve done no wrong,” he tells them. “Leave me alone.”