Cop Charged in Death of 95-Year-Old Nursing Home Resident

The
events leading up
to John Wrana’s death read more like the treatment for a zany
cop comedy than the makings of a real life tragedy. Park County,
Illinois, police were called to Wrana’s nursing home last year when
the 95-year-old World War II veteran resisted being taken to the
hospital. When then cops arrived, Wrana was brandishing his cane, a
knife, and a shoehorn as weapons. 

The scene quickly turned surreal and tragic. Any reasonable
person would know better than to use much physical force on an
extremely elderly man defending himself with a shoehorn. But
Officer Craig Taylor—who later said he thought the shoehorn was a
machete—responded by shocking Wrana with a stun gun and then
pelting him with five rounds of bean bags fired from a
shotgun. Taylor’s totally unreasonable and inappropriate use
of force caused Wrana internal bleeding, from which he later
died. 

Prosecutors said Taylor fired the beanbag rounds from somewhere
between six and eight feet away, when the proper distance is 15
feet away at minimum. He also refused to allow nursing home staff
to help, according to Wrana’s family’s attorney.

“Given the other viable options to resolve the matter and the
number of shots fired at this senior citizen at close range in
rapid succession, we believe this officer’s conduct to be
reckless,” Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez said in a
statement.

Taylor was charged this morning with one count of reckless
conduct, a Class 4 felony, and is expected to appear before a judge
later today, according to The Chicago Tribune. If
convicted, he could face up to three years in prison.