A grand jury in a small Louisiana town last week took the rare step of indicting a police officer for repeatedly shocking a handcuffed suspect with a Taser.

The district attorney in the racially charged region argued that the 21-year-old black suspect died after the white officer stunned him "unnecessarily" and then failed to seek medical aid. The officer was fired after the incident.

In what experts say is the first criminal case against a law enforcement officer for a Taser-related death, the ex-officer could face up to 45 years in prison.

Andre D. Thomas, 37, died died Aug. 5 after a Swissvale officer stunned him multiple times.

Those deaths and others have caused civil rights groups to call for greater discretion in the use of the electronic shock device, touted as a safe alternative to deadly force.

Amnesty International claims that more than 320 people have died since 2001 after being shocked with a Taser.

Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for the manufacturer, Taser International, disputes that number, stating that medical examiners have listed a Taser as a contributing cause of death in fewer than 30 cases. Taser International had won or settled a string of complaints, until June when a federal jury in San Jose awarded $6.2 million in a wrongful death suit against the manufacturer.

No matter how the counting is done, at least four individuals in Allegheny County died after Taser shocks.

Mr. Thomas' parents are still awaiting an explanation from the Allegheny County medical examiner about what caused his death.

Their lawyer, Howard Messer, who sought an independent autopsy in the case, said that although all the facts are not known, the circumstances leading up to the Taser shocks appear more egregious for Mr. Thomas than for the Louisiana man.

"My client was not under arrest, he had not participated in any criminal acts, and, according to the [Allegheny County] district attorney's office, he was not about to be arrested for any reason," he said. "Therefore, the question remains: How can a man die in the custody of the police when he is not the suspect of any criminal activity?"

Mr. Messer has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. today in his Downtown office to discuss the results of the private autopsy and his initial investigation.

The officers involved in Mr. Thomas' apprehension remain on duty.

In Winnfield, La., population 5,749, the police department suspended Officer Scott Nugent, the 22-year-old son of the late police chief, and the city council eventually voted to fire him after the death of Baron "Scooter" Pikes, 21. Mr. Pikes was wanted on a drug possession warrant when an officer spotted him Jan. 17. Officers chased him down and placed him in handcuffs.

With the young man cuffed and lying face down on the ground, Officer Nugent began issuing a total of nine 50,000-volt shocks with the stun gun over a 30-minute period. Witnesses said Mr. Pikes was not acting belligerently. The officer wanted him to get up, and he wasn't getting up.

Police reported that Mr. Pikes had told them he had asthma and had ingested PCP and crack cocaine. The medical examiner didn't find evidence of either. He ruled that Mr. Pikes died of cardiac arrest. The manner of death: homicide.

After they'd heard two days of testimony, a grand jury indicted the dismissed police officer on felony counts of manslaughter and malfeasance in office.

"It is our intention to show at trial that Mr. Nugent caused the death of Baron Pikes by 'tasing' him multiple times, unnecessarily and in violation of Louisiana law, and by failing to get him medical attention when it was apparent he needed it," Mr. Nevils, district attorney of the Eighth Judicial District, said in a statement. "In a civilized society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated."

Mr. Nugent turned himself into Winn Parish sheriff's deputies, and was facing a $45,000 bond.

The Swissvale Taser incident was prompted by phone calls to 911 from neighbors reporting that a man was frantically knocking on doors along Hawthorne Avenue asking for help.

Borough police officers located Mr. Thomas outside a home in the 2200 block of Hawthorne and said he refused to comply with orders. Then Officer Debra Indovina reportedly stunned him three times with her Taser.

Residents said one of the officers also stomped on Mr. Thomas' back and punched him in the head as he lay on the ground.

Witnesses said Mr. Thomas vomited and lay on the ground, motionless, while officers stood by and did not check his vital signs for minutes. Paramedics took him to UPMC Braddock, where he was pronounced dead.

The county medical examiner has not pinpointed a cause of death, but said he did not observe signs of excessive force. The man's family hired former county Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht to do a separate examination of the body.

Although toxicology tests were not available, District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. speculated at a news conference that Mr. Thomas' unusual strength, irrational behavior, dilated pupils, sudden labored breathing and weakening pulse seemed similar to symptoms of people who died while in a state of "excited delirium" brought on by acute cocaine toxicity.

The official response here has drawn criticism from civil rights groups who have been tracking the Louisiana case.

"Whereas recently in Philadelphia and other cities officials have condemned and even charged police officers caught using excessive force against civilians, here in Pittsburgh high-ranking officials all immediately made excuses for the police. They should at least wait for all the facts," said Witold Walczak, Pennsylvania legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

David Meieran, one of several human rights protesters who attended a Swissvale council meeting and co-founder of the national group Stop Taser Abuse Today, said the officers involved should be put on leave following Mr. Thomas' death. He believes "Swissvale should put a moratorium on use of Tasers until there's a policy" on their use.

There are at least three other documented cases in Allegheny County of people dying after they'd been shocked with a Taser, although their official causes of death don't note the electroshock.

City police shocked Brian Craig Carlile, 37, of Carrick, on May 1, 2006, when he did not get out of his vehicle when ordered to. He was taken to UPMC South Side. The medical examiner said he died of chronic alcoholic liver disease about three weeks later.

Gregory Nykiel, 34, of Millvale, died Nov. 14, 2006, after officers from Sharpsburg, Aspinwall and Blawnox stopped him in connection with a burglary. At the Sharpsburg police station, a civil lawsuit claims, officers "attacked, struck, kicked, punched, bludgeoned, beat, repeatedly shocked [him] with a [Taser]." His official cause of death was listed as acute cocaine overdose.

And, on Aug. 23, 2007, Chad Cekas died after he ran onto the Parkway West near the Fort Pitt Tunnel and police subdued him with a Taser. His cause of death was described as excited delirium syndrome due to cocaine poisoning.

Mr. Messer said "excited delirium is not a medical diagnosis," nor is it recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Board for Psychology and Neurology.

The most widely used stun guns, made by Taser International, shoot a five-second electric jolt along two barbs that hook into the skin. They were first sold to police departments in 1998.

In Pennsylvania, 566 law enforcement agencies use or are testing Taser brand devices, the company spokesman said. City police, the county sheriff's department, the SWAT unit of the county police, the state police and about 70 percent of municipal police departments in Allegheny County carry them.

They're billed as nonlethal weapons, designed to interrupt a situation or control a person who is in danger or acting erratically so an officer doesn't have to use deadly force.

Several other debilitating weapons used by police, such as high-velocity bean bag guns, batons and pepper spray, also are considered nonlethal.

But David Harris, a criminal law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who wrote "Good Cops, the Case for Preventive Policing," said all of these devices can cause death if misused or used in situations in which they are not appropriate, including Tasers.

"We expect our officers to use some degree of judgment and discretion on the street," said Mr. Harris, who has studied police departments' best practices for nonlethal force.

With the Thomas case in Swissvale, he said, investigators need to determine whether he was resisting apprehension.

"Police thought he was dangerous. How dangerous? To whom? In order to know if it's OK to have used an electroshock weapon on a person, you have to know what kind of danger this person posed. You use the amount of force to meet the danger presented," he said.

Locally, there's no question officers use Tasers with some frequency. City police deployed them 359 times in 2007.

City Officer David Wright, who conducts training sessions at the police academy and does training for Taser International when he's off-duty, said he teaches officers not to shock a visibly pregnant woman, or anyone who appears to be younger than 7 or older than 70, because muscle contractions could cause them to fall.

The guidelines don't rule out shocking someone who is mentally ill, high on drugs or intoxicated, he said.

City Lt. Dan Herrmann said he thinks Tasers prevent injuries to officers and the people they confront.

"If the guy is using fists, you're one step ahead, you use pepper spray. But it's messy, it can get in your eyes. You could use your night stick or metal baton, but that's going to open some wounds up. If the person's bigger than you and you shoot them, you could kill them. If you use the Taser, it will put them down in a heartbeat," he said.

Amnesty International advocates using Tasers only when the life of an officer is in danger or where the alternative is for the officer to use firearms.

"[Police] use it as a weapon of first choice. That's the pattern we've noticed," said Folabi Olagbaju, director of Amnesty's mid-Atlantic regional office. He said many cases, including the Louisiana death, involve prolonged or repeated discharges of the weapon.